It's a day when it feels like I could produce a 100,000 words, all strung together prettily, perhaps even eloquently, and all of it would still only add up to nada. I had intended to post something about powerhouse corporations eating the little guy, and how all of us have to do our bit by neglecting big chains in favor of small, privately owned businesses. Yes, patronize that quirky little coffee shop that you swear you love before it's too late. Buy your kid one thing that means something for Christmas instead of all of the plastic crap that they're pushing at you on the telly, and, chances are, you won't have to go to Walmart. There. I guess I've said what I wanted to. I can't feel those mental muscles that usually flex so well for me, but I guess that they're still there, functioning on autopilot, and getting done what needs to be done.
Joyce says a lot about mental paralysis in Dubliners. I hate that book, but it's probably not the book's fault. It's probably a little like hating the mirror on a day when you're feeling aesthetically challenged. It is what it is. Either change whatever it is that you think you don't like, or stop looking.
2 comments:
I have a confession. I did not in actuality go to Wallmart the other day in search of the magical leopleurodon. In fact, I did not search for the magical leopleurodon at all.
My otherwise loving spouse despises Wallmart with such passion that he sacrificed $25 on a book extrapolating on why is the devil. Any treachery with Wallmart shopping on my part is punished by extreme smirking and dull lectures.
Perhaps if my husband's lectures were as good as yours I would go to Wallmart more often just to hear of them :)
XOXO
Did I spell Wallmart wrong? I can't say that I'm sorry. Honestly, I don't mean to lecture . . . Em, well, not much, anyway. It's just that we've got to relearn the value of things, and the mass consumption of cheap goods ain't gonna help us reach any positive end. Small scale production and local patronization may be the key to reclaiming our humanity. Sorry. I wax dull. Too Matt-ish, no? I'm just one person, and I can't singlehandedly shut down Wally World or Starbucks, but I'll be damned if I won't at least say something about how offended I feel when it seems that they and their ilk are effectively taking over the world. I hate to feel like the mindless puppet of focus groups and marketing executives. It makes me itch. I'm stealing back my identity and my ability to choose. Shopping at Walmart would get me more stuff, sure, but not having MORE STUFF seems like a small price to pay for knowing that I'm not feeding the machine that I loathe and despise. My little war may add up to squat in the scheme of things, but I'll keep fighting it. Just call me Don Quixote. :) Hmm. That hit home. Not to get entirely off subject, but, yeah, sometimes I do see what I want to see like the aforementioned beloved hero. Whatever. I can't help it. Sometimes my version is just better. For example, I see a world where small businesses thrive and are handed down through the generations, where small bistros that serve amazing food thrive to the point where the proprietress' of such places might be able to afford to make random and spontaneous trips to a certain rust-belt city in order to pay visits to a hopelessly quixotic but well-meaning crazy person. :)
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