Cruising through the mall

My wife and I went to the nearby mall today. Since our daughters left home, we are not frequent visitors to the mall. The mall has not changed much, although there are a few more stores. Christmas decoration is up and it's not even Thanksgiving.

A larger than usual crowd was humming around at the time. "Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle All the Way" was floating around in the air from the stores. At one end parents were lining up to take pictures of their little darlings sitting on the lap of a chubby Santa Claus in a red suit. Teenage boys with low hanging pants and girls baring their navel area were cruising around. There were myriads of fashion statements from utter ugliness to "wow' type. The food court was packed. There was a long line outside a restaurant. American consumerism was alive and well.

We have succumbed to the same thing. We probably bought more than what we had actually gone in for. Most everything in the mall is made in somewhere but USA. We complain about our trade deficit, and child labor and low wages in other countries. They in turn are trying hard to satisfy our insatiable appetite. We talk about poverty in other countries, but we waste more than those poor children will ever have. We complain about gasoline price, but we are not willing to give up our SUVs and Hummers. We supersize everything from onions to soft drink to automobiles to people. Who gives a damn about the rest of the world? It's Christmas time and we sing, "Joy to the world". "What Joy", some may ask when they are getting killed in Iraq, starving in Africa, homeless in Darfur, left blind by Bhopal tragedy, or dying of AIDS. But we are in a mall happily buying stuff.

It reminded me a song; "All the gold in the world can buy no peace of mind in a world that don't believe in nothing anymore".