“Thrift is the really romantic thing; economy is more romantic than extravagance…thrift is poetic because it is creative; waste is unpoetic because it is waste…if a man could undertake to make use of all the things in his dustbin, he would be a broader genius than Shakespeare.“
G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With the World (Chapter IV “The Romance of Thrift“)
Oh, you gotta love it.
Yesterday I found myself on the following two sites:
http://www.xmasresistance.org/
http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/
Does this offend? Does it make you feel funny? Go ahead, call me a Scrooge, or a Grinch, or anything else you want, if it makes you feel better. I don’t have much cash at all, I don’t want to consume more crap that basically gets squandered, I don’t want anyone else telling me what it is that I need, or should think I need. I don’t believe that buying more will fill that empty, gaping vacuum in my soul, and I don’t believe that this retail-driven season has anything at all to do with Jesus Christ and His birth. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.
That being said: There is absolutely no reason why I can’t lift my head up and look around enough to see that there are indeed gestures of kindness that I can make to those around me, and shake myself out of this stupor. It’s cold, it’s hard times for everyone, and people recognize that it’s still a season of giving in spite of the greed and compulsion (so skillfully concealed beneath a veneer of sentimentality) that we’ve been sucked into for as long as we can remember.
There’s something about the legitimate need of so many that gets drowned out by the illegitimate greed…and yet, somewhere in the midst of the din, beyond the Muzak and the malls and the madding crowd, aside from the diminishing digits on our bank statements, there is still the opportunity for thoughtfulness, true kindness, and a quiet joy that surpasses all understanding. It’s not the Christmas spirit. It’s simply The Spirit.
That cannot be purchased. Anywhere. At any price.
Nor do we have to line up for it or trample anyone in the process.
