Biology

Let’s not be too literal

Chemical potion

Nerves, synapses.

Nothing personal

Primal survival

Fingertips tingle

Endorphins mingle

Option viable

Rush to judgment

Reason lapses

Let’s call it emotion,

deliberately.

   

Photo Prompt from Magpie Tales

Initiate

 

Practicing your craft

Paint ruts upon the earth

Twist trees into the vortex

Slash lightning bolts

Smudge charcoal clouds

To blot out the light

Illuminate with blinding white

Your world created

Eviscerated

by Maria Mainero

Thanks to Magpie for the picture prompt that inspired me to resume this blog after a one-year break. 

"You Ruined My Thanksgiving."

Fun fact: In 1993 the first year Kmart opened on Thanksgiving, I was working there as an assistant manager, my first job out of college. Due to all the outrage by employees over the decision to stay open, it was mandatory for all management to work that day. We compromised and split the day into half-shifts so no one would have to work the whole day.

There was a special "Thanksgiving day only" ad to accompany this. One of the advertised items was doormats, pictured in several styles. Business was slow that day, but about noon, an elderly man approached me on the salesfloor asking for the doormats. I took him to the aisle, and showed them to him, and he proceed to chew me out because we didn't have in stock one of the exact designs pictured. I apologized for not having that particular item and tried to suggest he chose a different style from the sale items. He then told me, "You just ruined my Thanksgiving."

Yes. Those were his exact words.

After my shift ended, I drove 2 1/2 hours to my family's Thanksgiving dinner, and spent about three hours there before driving back home so I could be at work on time for Black Friday.

Please notice, this was nearly 20 years ago.

Guess what. Nothing has changed, and now practically everyone is following suit, and Kmart is grabbing some free publicity by opening at 6 am and staying open ALL DAY (gasp.) If anyone thinks they are the least bit concerned about all the threats to boycott them, you are naïve. They are already patting themselves on the backs for their genius plan to remind people that Kmart still exists.

There have been 20 years now to "boycott," and yet nothing has stopped.

Why?

Because even though many people are lovely, and will not shop on Thanksgiving, there are still enough grouchy, selfish people out there who will. I have never forgotten that surly old man, or his rude words to me. If he's still alive, I'm sure he's not the least bit concerned about what day he shops.

And for those of us who won't shop that day? No problem. Kmart, Target, Walmart, Sears, Old Navy, Kohls, Best Buy, Macy's and JC Penny will be happy to take your money any other day from Nov 29th thru Dec 24th. Christmas is next folks, and these guys aren't backing off.

What would your shopping season look like without ANY of these stores? I doubt any of us would do that. But think about it when you're spending your money, it all goes to the same bottom line.

I liked working in retail, especially the holiday season. I thought Black Friday was a blast! Crazy, but fun.

But there's no denying the corporate greed and lack of compassion that rules these big companies overall. It's there everyday, not just on Thanksgiving. It's there when they try to skimp out of providing benefits and pay for their employees. It's there when they lowball suppliers, forcing them to cut costs and quality, so that you can't buy a blender that won't break in a year anymore. Its there when they cut people's jobs right after the holidays and squeeze just a little more work out of the lucky ones who are left. It's there when CEOs bankrupt the company with their big bonuses and are more concerned about their stockholders than about their customers.

So what's my point? I guess, just to say, try to remember your outrage for longer than just Thanksgiving day. We live in a country that supports this kind of corporate activity. If that's not what you want, it's going to take big changes, not just a commitment to stay home on Thanksgiving like you always do.

Reality Check

I just got back from an "unplugged" vacation, at the lake where I checked my phone daily for Wi-Fi or data access, but only managed to sneak a peak at facebook and e-mail for 20 minutes or so, late Friday afternoon. Saturday night, I got home and after the kids were bathed and in bed, I settled down for some long overdue "nettime."

Don't ask me why. Hours later, I was none the wiser about anything important. If any friend had a crisis or a celebration, it was lost in days of cluttered posts. The "news" articles I read were short on facts but long on links. I read an article about new guidelines for child car seat use, which referred to a 5-point checklist for when your child is ready to move out of a booster seat and use adult seatbelts. The checklist was not in the article, only a link that led to . . . . NOT A CHECKLIST, and after a few additional clicks on likely-looking links, still no checklist.

I moved on, not letting this one little glitch get in the way of all the INSTANTANEOUS awesomeness of the internet. Next up, an article about public breastfeeding, which I could tell would be GOOD because of the comparison to all the over-exposed, oversexualized images and attire we see everywhere. Never mind that my days of public breastfeeding were a mere blip on the radar of my life story. The three weeks per child between the "half-hour per side thank-you-very-much-mom" newborn days, and the "oooh, look at all that stuff I've never seen before" phase of a slightly more alert 4-month-old, was a very small window, during which I never experienced any unpleasant intrusions from strangers.

About five minutes into the article, I was getting riled up, for really no reason. Realistically the two to three morons who managed to make headlines by bullying breastfeeding women, are no more significant to "womankind" everywhere than the two or three morons who park across two parking spaces in the hell-lot at 14 mile and Orchard Lake.

Then I made the mistake of reading a few comments. Sure enough, within the first few, someone made mention of God, which is, on the internet, an automatic trigger for someone to claim the point made is invalid because it depends on belief in a "sky fairy."

At this point, I logged off, but my brain was still logged on, and I started wondering, what value am I getting out of all this internet information? It's all geared to short attention spans, which is not really a problem that I'm afflicted with. And it's all steeped in distance, anonymity and lack of accountability. Make an error online, and if you get called out on it, you can just update, and pretend it never happened. Or ignore it because no one knows who you really are anyway.

In real life, I can't imagine any of my friends, who know me, who know my level of intelligence, skepticism and integrity, dismissing my real belief in God, as a fantasy of a "sky fairy." If anyone would, I'd welcome an opportunity to discuss our beliefs over coffee (or over drinks if that's your preference). But I suspect, that's not a conversation most of us want to engage in, in the "real world." So why do we engage in it online?

For a week, I was unconnected. And I didn't miss anything. One day, I wondered about that famous Canadian hockey player, whose name I couldn't remember. So I asked someone (no, NOT Google) and then I did my head-slap, "of course, Wayne Gretzky, how did I forget that?"

I'm thinking about how to spend less time online. About limiting my access to "lunchbreak" or late evening. Resisting the urge to "clickthrough" to that interesting, controversial and ultimately, meaningless article. Because isn't what's really at stake, what happens in reality? In MY life, under MY sphere of control and influence? The idiocy of some stranger half-way across the country shouldn't really be getting under my skin. Let their own friends and family step up to their support. I've got enough on my plate.

I realize it's a bit hypocritical to be posting this ONLINE. I'm not saying there isn't anything of value online, or that it's not possible to make real connections and real friends. But I need to focus, and make sure the time I'm spending here is enhancing my life, not depleting my hope for the future of humanity.