The Christmas Perils of the Salary Man

Colourful lights, decorations, and bad music: Bah Humbug. There I said it. The more time I spend in the world of salaried retail management, the more I begin to wonder why. Hunter S. Thompson once wrote: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." I would like to say that also applies to retail sales in a BIG way. The Christmas season is supposed to be a celebration of new life, a time of giving; but what I seem to see is a time when all of the nation's retailers go absolutely bug-fuck nuts trying to make as much money as possible, and ordinary people will trample each other for knickknacks and gewgaws.

Why?

I suppose it all comes down to one thing. Conditioning. We have been programmed to believe that we have to prove our love for friends and family by buying as much as possible in the shortest span of time. Act NOW, Save BIG, or the people closest to you will be unhappy. What a crock. If only life were so easy, but watch just one hour of TV and count the number of commercials that play on these sentiments. It'll shock the hell out of you. Most of us don't notice it, they just see it and their brains file it all away. You don't even think about it, but you go out, you act now, you (supposedly) save big, and you come away feeling that you are making people happy.

Here's the funny thing: You are now a little poorer, and someone (several someones probably) are now a little richer. All so that you don't have to feel guilty about the slim possibility that you might not have appreciated people enough. I have a better idea. Give people who have nothing (or next to it) something; donate money in someone else's name and save the tax receipt, give the tax return to someone you love and tell them that they've made a difference.

Hey, it's Jesus' birthday, so ask yourself: What would He want for Christmas?