Monday, April 17, 2006

nowhere to shop

I had a weird experience Sunday. Not Easter-related; well, sorta. We went to church, had a wonderful time celebrating the resurrection with our church friends, then for some reason, I had the perverse urge to shop. It's not like I'd given it up for Lent, or anything. It's not like I do it much, anyway. It just sounded like fun. We recently discovered how close Tyson's Mall is to our church coffee shop joint -- dangerous knowledge. Matt humored me by driving on over there. We got out -- got a good parking spot; no surprise, as it turns out -- and walked into the mall. Walked around and around, as were a bunch of other people. We had a few destinations, which turned out to be closed, just like 97 percent of the rest of the mall.

Part of me was glad; hey, it's Easter Sunday! Not a time for people to be manning (or womanning) shops. Time for people to be with family, or celebrating, or whatever.
Part of me was bummed, because, hey, I felt like shopping!
And part of me was thinking, "So -- if the shops and food vendors seem to all be closed ... what are we all DOING here?"
Are we such a nation of shoppers that we like to wander 'round even when stuff is closed? Or were that many people confused as to the closedness, as we were?

It's probably a great illustration for something, but I'm not quite sure what.

1 comment:

  1. Sort of sounds like a scene from Dawn of the Dead. Ya know, the mindless zombies drawn to a familar location for some internal need...even though the stores are closed.

    Sounds like you all probably left the mall with a sense of emptiness and a big "why??" imprinted on your psyche.

    Unless, of course, you found a secluded spot and mooned a mannequin!
    :-)

    ReplyDelete