As posted on RevGalBlogPals …
So this is a “Black Friday” Five (aka Buy Nothing Day) in honor of the busiest shopping day of the year:
1. Would you ever/have you ever stood in line for something–tickets, good deals on electronics, Tickle Me Elmo?
Well … I’ve never stood in a literal line. But I’ve stood in a virtual line … I had access to early tickets to U2’s Vertigo tour. I had to load, reload, reload, until I finally got into the site and got my tickets. It was high energy and sort of fun.
There was another time when LightGirl was little and a special Barbie was on sale early on Black Friday. I refused to stand in line and thus lost out on this super special dealio. So did LightGirl. Oh well.
2. Do you enjoy shopping as a recreational activity?
No, not really. I’m more tolerant of browsing than LightHusband, but generally I need to have a list in mind to venture into a store.
3. Your favorite place to browse without necessarily buying anything.
Oh well … that would be any one of several on-line fabric stores 😉 … I often play on their design walls for an hour or two and then “go home” empty-handed.
4. Gift cards: handy gifts for the loved one who has everything, or cold impersonal symbol of all that is wrong in our culture?
The tired, overworked part of me says they are handy gifts for loved ones … especially my nieces and nephews who love to pick stuff out for themselves. On the other hand, the creative artist in me loves to make small gifts for friends and family and is horrified by impersonal pieces of plastic. I think they have their place, but they can also be overused. And, I would much rather have a gift card from a fabric store than another tchochke that I have to dust (speaking as a recipient).
5. Discuss the spiritual and theological issues inherent in people coming to blows over a Playstation 3.
Hmmm … well, actually I think this is a cold impersonal symbol of all that is wrong in our culture. It would be easy to say it’s greed. But I don’t think it is. I think it’s short-sightedness. It’s more like an inability to wait one’s turn. Even when it appears that the turn may take several weeks. I’m not sure why this happens. But people decide that they have a “right” to have a certain thing at a certain time and decide to assert their rights over that of someone else. I see this failure of our ability to wait our turn at many levels in our culture, and I wonder if this is how we handle Playstation 3’s what will happen as we begin to run out of oil? Or perhaps we handle Playstation 3’s in this manner precisely because of how our leaders are handling the potential for oil shortages? I’m not entirely sure which comes first….
