Christmas had come around again. I unpack the ornaments and get out my cd's of medieval and Renaissance music. I make a list of little things my family might like. I hope that this year people will realize what this is supposed to be about; It's not about the acquisition of stuff.
I don't kow why I take this so personally, but every year when the commercials start, with their 'you need this or you'll die' or 'buy this or your wife will leave you' messages, I get a tad sick. God's gift to the world was the promise of redemption-not the promise of more goodies. Yet even self-professed Christians carry on as if more (and more expensive) stuff was only their due. It's not.
This attitude brings out the worst in people. Long before this year, when a man was trampled to death at a Wal-mart by people who wanted those bargains, news programs ran footage of shoppers fighting, shoving, and just generally behaving, well, like Shagrat and Gorbag fighting over Frodo's mithril shirt. I hope they went home and wept with shame. We're not talking about hungry people fighting for food, or people fighting for scarce medicine for their sick children.
People must finally understand that they can get along just fine without all of this junk; no one needs a TV in every room of the house. (Nor can the rest of the world sustain this level of consumption). It won't make anyone happier, or more secure. In fact, it seems to be making people more miserable. So they buy more stuff in another attempt to make themselves happy. It's a vicious cycle. We need to break it. And Christmas is the time to begin.
Tags:
christmas, greed, materialism, wal-mart
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