'Tis the Season to be . . . shopping

I was at the mall the other day.  It was a Saturday and the mall was busier than normal.  The Christmas shopping season must really be underway.  Some stores were very busy and others not so yet.  I was in my favourite jewelry store, for a minor watch repair, and it wasn’t busy at all.  The owner said that men were his main customers at this time of year and they tended to shop later.  After all, it was only December 1^st.

First man, “Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?”

Second man, “Why?  Is it Christmas Eve already?”

Of course, who knows when Christmas shopping is supposed to start.  Some say in September.  Others say right after Thanksgiving.  Others say Christmas Eve.

First woman, “I’m so confused!”

Second woman, “Why?”

First woman, “I don’t know at which sale to do my Christmas shopping; post-Halloween, pre-Black Friday, Black Friday, post-Black Friday, Cyber Monday, post-Cyber Monday, extended Black Friday, pre-Christmas, Christmas, Boxing Day, post-Boxing day, extended Boxing Day, or early January.”

It seems a sad commentary that the only measure of “success” of Christmas is whether or not retailers made enough money this year.  Why can’t there be other measures like how many happy family get-togethers there were, how many strangers were greeted by someone wishing them the best of the season or how many store clerks were made to feel special for the service they gave.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone said Merry Christmas and really meant it?  Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there really was peace on earth?  Make a stranger feel happy this season and see how good it makes you feel.  And please don’t forget or ignore people of other beliefs who have holy days at this time of year. 

On that note, I sincerely wish everyone a very happy season, and may your shopping be a happy experience, no matter when you do it.  Look for me out on Christmas Eve.

Remembrance Day 2018

It is Remembrance Day 2018.  One hundred years ago, the carnage we call World War I ended.  We heard the stories of dead and wounded soldiers from that war including the Canadian, George Price, who was the last Commonwealth soldier to die in the war, several hours after the last British soldier died.  There was another world war, more wide-spread and devastating than the first.  But we still pay homage to that first one.

There was an on-line story the other day about an artifact in the Canadian War Museum that had been made ready to be used in a Remembrance Day ceremony in Europe.  The artifact was one of the first armoured cars used by Canadians in that war.  It is still in working order.  In the comments section of the story, one writer had made it very plain that this machine was designed to kill people and therefore should not have been built.  That comment got me thinking.

There are probably no people who abhor war more than serving and retired members of the military.  They know the power of present-day weapons and what they can do.  And once you have seen men and women killed or wounded by these weapons, you probably never want to see it again.

If the world were such a pacific place that we were able to do without weapons, it would be the most wonderful thing that ever happened to humanity.  But if you stopped building modern weapons; armoured cars, tanks, war planes, warships, missiles and nuclear bombs; it would not stop violence.  People would continue to fight with clubs, sticks, knives, spears, hatchets and hunting rifles.  They would continue to find ways to kill or maim other people.  Enterprising humans would continue to refine and improve such ways with bigger clubs, longer sticks with sharp points, better knives that would evolve into swords, spears that were longer and sharper, better hatchets and improved rifles that would shoot farther and faster.  Of course, this is the route that the history of violence has already gone.  And we still haven’t been able to figure out a way to bring about the kind of state of permanent peace that almost all peoples of the world crave.  And as long as there is even one belligerent group of people with weapons, others must be prepared to defend themselves.  The development and proliferation of weapons sadly goes on.