The Economy Of Gratitude

In Long Island, New York, this morning, a 38-year-old Walmart employee was killed as a direct result of being stampeded by eager shoppers when the automatic doors were opened prior to first light. 

An estimated two thousand people -- hundreds of whom began congregating outside as early as nine o'clock Thanksgiving night -- in fact broke the doors as the unlucky key-turner attempted to let everyone in.

Good Samaritans who tried to help the squashed worker were hindered for over seven minutes by out-of-control shoppers who, in their rush to achieve retail nirvana, made it impossible to rescue the dying man.

Several others, including an expectant mother, were sent to hospitals for treatment of injuries suffered in the same tsunami of Walmart investors who couldn't wait patiently for their turn to grab the merchandise.

I was reminded of highways clogged with evacuees fleeing natural disasters such as hurricanes and tidal waves.

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dangerous place to stand, behind or around the Walmart doors as they are unlocked ... while most people in all time zones across America are still snoring.

In other news at another Walmart, female patrons nearly came to blows when they coveted the same Wii game. There was only one of it and two of them, and clearly that stark reality was more than either could handle. It got ugly; managerial intervention became necessary to minimize the chance that blood would be shed.

Two human beings were killed -- shot! -- at a Toys 'R Us in California today, apparently when separate shopping factions couldn't see eye to eye about who would be allowed to buy what.

Times is hard.

(But we may need to redefine "hard" before it's over.)

Where I live, the helpful folks at J.C. Penney were willing give you an actual wake-up call on your actual telephone so that you wouldn't miss a single minute of shopping at their store today.

The doors opened at four o'clock in the morning.

(Wake me eight thirty-ish ... but not with a call. Do it gently, with lots of fresh, hot coffee. I can shop at Penney's any time.)

In an online news story on the subject of the massive amount of Christmas shopping that would be done this weekend across the nation, I read about a consumer who was scouring a popular retail outlet, buying stuff for her only granddaughter, age three, who always "gets whatever she wants."

(That has to be easy. When my children were age three, they did not know what they wanted. They wanted whatever they got. And they got what I wanted to give them.)

The lucky toddler's uber-benevolent grandmother was also there to pick up "two spare TVs."

Don't want to run short on those!

In Columbia, South Carolina, this afternoon while I and two of my daughters were out doing a wee bit of shopping, the traffic was so severe that I was reminded of highways clogged with evacuees fleeing natural disasters such as hurricanes and tidal waves.

Whoa, y'all.

However much you or I love the gifts we receive on Christmas Day, they cannot love us back. Well, unless we get puppies ... or babies.

A scant two miles from my house, gasoline can be purchased for $1.52 per gallon. I call that a blessing.

About a mile from that gas station, where I did my soupçon of shopping, I had exceptionally delightful experiences. At a huge crafts store I was waited on by a cashier named Tracy. Tracy was so polite and so courteous, so anxious to serve me in an efficient and timely manner, that I thanked her expressly for it. She seemed to like that.

I must have asked eighty-five separate times for numbers to be read to me. Not once did anyone act like it was an imposition.

My last stop was at a store where I wish everyone could shop. You can shop there if you live convenient to the Carolinas or Savannah, Georgia. There's online shopping for everyone else. It's called Hand Picked, and their shelves are dripping with some of the nicest jewelry and accessories you'll find anywhere.

Key phrase: All at very reasonable prices.

And with nice rewards for volume and repeat shoppers. Presided over by just about the most helpful and cheerful staff I can imagine encountering anywhere.

(I had forgotten my reading cheaters at home. The tiny price tags were a blur and I must have asked eighty-five separate times for numbers to be read to me. Not once did anyone act like it was an imposition. A few times I even utilized the eyes of fellow customers.)

I spent a happy sixty minutes or so there, selecting gifts for my daughters. I know their eyes will light up when they see what I picked out, and I know they'll look pretty when wearing it, and feel attractive and feminine and, I hope, loved.

But on Christmas Day I plan to remind myself that if all we had was one another, and not a single gift to open between us all, we'd be among the most fortunate people on earth.

Why?

Because we are Christians ... we are Americans ... we have a large and loving family ... and our level of contentment does not depend upon how much we can spend on ephemera (material joys that last but a day) ... at Christmas or any other time ... at Walmart or anywhere else.

I am so thankful that our happiness does not depend upon the economy.

And gratitude, my friends, is an economy unto itself.

At our Thanksgiving table yesterday, before prayer and digging in, we read the following quote, attributed to a wise woman named Melody Beattie:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

 

Comments

[kev]

Great post. It's nice to know EVERYONE in the world hasn't gone mad.

[rosezilla]

It sickens me that the day after Thanksgiving, a day of contentment and counting blessings and sharing them with beloved family, has been turned in to a greedfest of deadly proportions. There's nothing I want that badly. (If those people had spent all week preparing the family's feast they'd be too tired to go anyway!)I really wouldn't want a gift procured by crushing someone to death in order to buy it cheap. I love the scene in the Grinch where they all discover there are no gifts and they don't care, because that's not what they are celebrating! The Gift has already been given - all we have to do is receive Him.

[Jennifer]

@ Kev ... yeah ... just NEARLY everyone, LOL!

@ Tracie ... Amen, my friend. I love the way you put things! So very true, all you said. Merry Christmas, luv!

[Cheryl]

I went out to Kohl's last year on Black Friday and the group of women behind me stormed past as soon as the doors were opened. I'll never forget the fear I felt. It's a crazy world, and this speaks so badly for humankind. Your post is so true and wise and right.

[Jennifer]

Thank you, Cheryl.

[Jay]

Good grief. That poor man and his family! Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time - this is indeed the ugly face of commercialism and greed.

And people were shot in Toys r Us? Way to teach your children good family values! The world has indeed gone mad.

These people need to remember that he who dies with the most toys ... still dies.

[Jennifer]

Jay ... a sage observation! And "greed" certainly is the operative word here. None of us "needs" anything. We all need to concentrate on being more loving and giving of ourselves rather than of material things.

[Skunkfeathers]

I know a few New Yorkers who have bragged to me about how much more advanced, cultured and "progressive" their town is, over places like Colorado.

Hmmmm...

[Jennifer]

SF, I detect a note of skepticism in your tone! LOLOLOL ... unfortunately, greed and cruelty are all too universal.