Anderson, South Carolina
One of the most enduring images of the Christmas season has been that of three kings dressed in royal finery on camels making their way across a moonlit desert landscape, seeking the King of Kings. Greeting card makers often hired artists to create sumptuous renditions of this quiet wondrous night event in history. Christmas was once primarily a religious holiday, a time to celebrate the birth of One believed to have been given to us as the ultimate gift. At one time, even wealthy merchants and kings were willing to go to great lengths to get in on the most important gift giving experience of all-time.
In this post-atomic cyber age Christmas is about something very different. It is about ferocious competition to get something ahead of the next guy. Vivid images flood the Internet and TV outlets of people camping out for days to hold a place in line outside of Best Buy or Toys-r-Us for a chance to get the next hottest consumer thing. One estimate was of 1,000 people being wrapped around each of the countless Toys-r-Us outlets, despite the precarious state of personal finances and national economies. The same scenario took place at Target, Best Buy, and a million other retailers. Stores opened at 4 AM. Some never closed. Several of my acquaintances working in retail jobs were in near exhaust status on the Friday after Thanksgiving, having worked all night.
The extreme franticness that has taken hold of the American consumer to consume is best articulated by this shopper from the South. "We have a schedule. What time, where to be and what we're going to do," said Lisa Damanti. "You can't eat. You get points taken away. We do it at Christmas Eve. If we eat or go to the bathroom, we get points taken away." Who is keeping score of what? Is this a game we really want to play? Even boxers and football players get a chance to go sit and take a break. Is Christmas really about not being able to even eat or use the toilet? I have wondered about how people take care of personal needs while waiting three days outside of a store for a chance to buy the Holy Grail. Maybe they don’t.
It's not only shoppers and merchants who are busy this holiday season. Police also have their hands full, said Capt. Mike Harmon, of the Greenville Police Department. “They're dealing with aggressive drivers, blocking of intersections, patrolling through parking lots and handicapped parking," he said. "All of this is what they're doing to help with the traffic flow and to help calm people down." Some people never calm down.
Last year a stampede at a Wal-Mart store on Black Friday resulted in the death of a man working the door. When the door was unlocked at 5 AM, a crowd of consumers stampeded into the building to beat out neighbors, friends, and strangers for the best deal. This man was put to death by shoppers who had no idea of Who is king at Christmas. This year Wal-Mart was pro-active and simply never closed many of its stores from the day before. The door was never locked. I wonder if the shoppers in that New York Wal-Mart even know the great price paid for their gift giving last year.
One can be absolutely certain that there were no lines of people wrapped around any of the several hundred thousand churches in America. In fact, with confidence, one can say that virtually every one of them was locked up tight and dark on Black Friday and the Saturday following. It is not likely that any of them were open, providing an alternative place for people to share community and to reflect on their blessings, an alternative to the frenzied consumption that has become the hallmark of American life. My church powered down mid-day Wednesday and went dark for days while the altars of consumption were radiant all night long. Those of us without a penchant for consumption and without families are just out of luck. We wander around the holidays, mostly listless. If we are lucky, we might get invited over to watch someone’s new flat-screen plasma TV for a few hours. We might actually just end up roaming around in the mall, just to be around people, because people don’t seem to be anywhere else.
Cash is king. A local NBC affiliate reporter declared such in an article he just posted on line and said aloud on the local TV station. What happened to Jesus? Wasn’t Christmas about Him? Financial analysts see Christmas as about consumers becoming profitably reckless with their precarious finances and spending their way into oblivion while pushing the bottom lines of corporate America into the black for the year. It would seem Christmas is about maximizing return on investment, not about wandering in the desert looking for a place to leave off donations of frankincense, myrrh, and gold.
Some have taken it a step further. Washington State is officially no longer about the spiritual or religion dimensions of Christmas. In a recent cultural coup-de-tat, the leadership of that state dethroned the King of Christmas and declared illegal the erecting of anything in the capitol that might remind us who really is King of Christmas. Any manner of religious display is now forbidden. Even the Jews got caught in this one; menorahs are taboo as well.
After Black Friday, online retailers said they were gearing up for Cyber Monday when people are expected to order Christmas gifts. Analysts said they expect online sales to rise about 3 percent this year.
Maybe it really wasn’t the Grinch who stole Christmas. Next time you go in the bathroom, look in the mirror. The answer might be there. What did you do on Black Friday?
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
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