cale livingston

Rant: Thanks-Getting?

Maybe I’m a little slower than most but it just dawned on me tonight: Our national holiday of “Thanksgiving” is directly followed by the single greatest day of shopping in America.

Oh the irony! Oh the hypocrisy!

I think I’m developing a bit of a grudge against our capitalistic culture these days. How/why exactly have we, as Christians, promoted and participated in a system that fuels greed, envy and discontented hearts? How is that even close to a pursuit of Christ’s heart? I think we’re in the midst of reassessing our priorities and dealing with the hard truth that money has been our master far too long.

It is capitalism and our greed that ultimately created this terrible recession we’re in as a country. We’ve collectively created a bubble that would inevitably burst. Only, in this outcome, it’s actual lives and families that are rattled to the core. Through herd mentality we’ve seen hundreds of millions of people slide into a life of comfortably living outside their means. If credit cards were the rope then we’ve made the noose.

I wish there were more spiritual mirrors in the world because it seems these days people don’t even recognize the consequences of their actions, as if we all function in a separate vacuum. Maybe that’s why we see things on TV like employees being trampled to death at WalMart. All for the sales, right?

America is just one step away from Lord of the Flies, despite whatever lies nationalism tries to feed us. We have our running water and constant electricity and suddenly we think we’re better than the rest of the world. We’re dignified. Civilized. Self-righteous.

I almost can’t bear to read one more statistic mentioning how little it takes to eliminate world hunger, poverty, illiteracy, etc. The reports even try to dress it up by relating it to whatever the current thing Americans are spending money on. The flavor of the week. The last one I remember said something like 2% of our Christmas shopping budget could feed all the children of the world for a year. But, clearly, that’s just not worth it!

What sort of evil and sin is there in the collective soul? How does the simple fact that there’s a mass of people allow not one single individual to act? Maybe this Friday truly is Black…

And when I think back to just 24 hours earlier I remember all the things I was grateful for, none of which were material goods.

My unrealistic challenge: Don’t buy any presents this year.

Instead, you might try investing an hour of your time with a person for every $10 you would have spent on them. Time is money, after all! Then again, I just value relationships and personal time way more than gifts or presents. So maybe that’s just unique to my love language.

Thanks for reading my first rant. Ideally you’d be so inspired/angered as a reader to respond in dialogue with me.