Culture Inspection

The holidays are the best time of year to inspect a culture. Throw strangers together with bright lights, loud music, and jam-packed parking lots. Add a dash of cold weather, gift lists, and high expectations. Most likely you'll find consumption is king. Here in America, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are commercial enterprises, but we seem to be slipping further and further away from the very ideas of happiness and satisfaction. No matter our effort, they remain out of reach.

A friend and his mother physically fought their way into a store for the Day after Thanksgiving Sale. He wanted to go early, but his mom said they could show up just before the store opened and cut in line. He confided his nervousness at breaking unspoken social rules, but his mom assured him she gets away with it every year. My friend said when they arrived he was surprised at the vile words coming from "grandmotherly types" when they perceived his mother's dishonest intentions. Many had been waiting for hours. Between chants of "Don't let her in!" the women interspersed four-letter words describing her forebears with comments on her weight, grooming, and probable profession.

Visiting another friend's house, I marveled at the Christmas light display, silently calculating the money, time, and sheer effort involved. He proudly paraded me around his home, showing off the multiple extension cords and electrical outlets required to avoid overloading the system. Inside, his wife had covered almost every surface with red and white candles, miniatures, poinsettias, needlepoint holly leaves, and Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers.

It is all too easy to dismiss such stories. We console ourselves with the idea that the real problem is over-consumption. We are exactly right, and we are guilty as charged.

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