In this holiday season, it is important to be forewarned about the dangers of the ordinary suburban mall.  Where once were wide swaths of open aisles to stroll along, now there are kiosks every 8-10 feet selling gewgaws, knick-knacks, trinkets, and dog-knows-what. Where once storeowners placed their wares for sale in attractive window displays, now salespeople, carnival-barker-like, step into your path and offer small samples or walk alongside you, desperately yammering away on the supposed merits of their product.  Where once you had the choice to step into a store, contemplate, or complete a transaction, eliciting a smile and “thank you for your purchase, please come in again”, now we’re bushwacked and relieved of our earnings with a slick swipe of a credit card, slinking away afterwards with a plastic bag dangling from our wrists, premature consumption achieved in a matter of seconds, spent, somehow lacking satisfaction.

I am not above this temptation, friends, indeed, I confess I too have succumbed. Rationally I know there is no topical application wrinkle-plumping enough to fill the lines my face earned in 6 decades, yet to my shame I made eye contact with a purveyor promising youthful skin. Before I knew it I was perched on her tiny stool, basking by a bewildering array of exclusive products from the “Holy Land”, whilst a litany of benefits, ingredients, colloidals, vitamins, and whatnot were recited at a breathtaking pace.  I became dazed and disoriented, or maybe drunk, that is my excuse. I came home with these products and hid them under my bathroom sink. To this day, when I am sure I am alone, I attempt to salvage the shreds of my dignity by utilizing these nostrums around my nostrils…and eyes, and cheeks, and forehead, and neck, and my skin feels AMAZING. I am so ashamed…

Buddhism tells us that the reason for suffering in this life is desire, and that property is slavery. There is no thing in the world that can return love. There is no thing in this world that can replace life.  Christmas in America now symbolizes the relentless consumption of things. The day after Thanksgiving has become “Black Friday”, dedicated to the sales of many things that a year from now will be forgotten, discarded or broken, and some people will still be paying for them. And the pursuit to purchase some new trendy thing will be taken up. Gollum finally died for his precious ring…one ring to rule them all. Would that it were as easy to rule ourselves. We have the power to just say no.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz-8CSa9xj8&feature=related