Friday, December 19, 2008

Happy "Festival of Giving"!

I was walking past the Wal Mart today (is that one word or two?) and had a vision of a depressing post modern metaphor for how commercialism and big business have ruined the Christmas spirit.

'Tis of course the season for the Salvation Army (is buskers the right word?) to stand in front of drug stores ringing their bells for donations. Now while some of these (does it seem like they're always women?) are the friendliest people you could hope to meet, most are rather unhappy seeming folks. I can't blame them, if my job were to stand out side all day ringing a bell and being nice to people I'd get pretty bored pretty quickly, and I am sure they are not the best paid people either. The woman outside Wal Mart is down right truculent looking.

As I passed her station today and looked up I noticed a Zebra Dove (the dumbest birds alive) which had managed to get itself inside the store and was beating its wings against the windowed area above the automatic doors in an attempt to escape, while the truculent santa-be-hatted Salvation Army woman gazed up blankly at it, ringing her bell irritably.

The metaphor immediately entered my head "Dove of peace trapped by Wal Mart, Santa does nothing."

. . .

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