Christmas
Shopping
“The
greatest dividends in life are those that we give away.”
Craig
D. Lounsbrough
So, the
gift giving season is upon us. I’ve been hobbling around stores for the last
few days trying to get this and that, and mostly not finding what I want. (If I’m
honest, mostly not knowing what I want.) The other day, I was in the Target
that sits on the border of Homewood and Vestavia—I was in sweats, having just
come from the gym; my hair was wet from the rain, standing on end, and I had 3
dirty bags of glass bottles in the cart to recycle. All the healthy, young,
blond, well-heeled, upwardly mobile, women were there, all bouncing ponytails
and stretch tights, pushing Mercedes baby strollers filled with sleeping
sweetness. To say I felt like an ancient bag-lady hardly covers the subject. It’s
an interesting experiment to conduct, by the way—go to any store in an affluent
area looking like that and, 1) no one will offer to help you find something; 2)
people avert their eyes so as not to make contact, 3) when you walk into an
aisle of merchandise, other people scatter. It’s embarrassing, but kind of fun
at the same time.
Gifts
for the 2021 holiday season include everything we didn’t get to give last year
plus some. The store, despite the Omicron variant, was packed with shoppers with
carts piled high—very few masks. So much for inflation and economic anxiety.
People are making up for lost time. We want to give everything we can because
who knows what comes next.
While
we’re giving, and spending, and giving, and ordering, and spending, let’s not
forget that we are not “everyone.” And that there are people all around us who cannot
“shop ‘til they drop.” There are empty shelves in the stores, but also in the
soup kitchens. There are fewer toys in the kids’ department, and fewer still in
many children’s shelters. In our consumer-culture-celebration-of-Christmas, let’s
remember what the season is about—the gift of God for the people of God—and include
the ones who do not look like us or live as we do. They are God’s children, too;
especially loved by the one whose birthday we will celebrate.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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