I was out Christmas shopping today, mostly for the kids, though I did buy myself something. I won't say what it is because it'll make me jump like 10 more points on the geek-o-meter or more. The point is, I was waiting to get through an aisle, and it dawned on me.
I was the ONLY one waiting my turn. People were pushing and shoving and the store wasn't even really that busy, people would actually move other carts and not say anything. One of these same people actually shoved a child out of the way so that they could get a better look at something they didn't even end up putting in their basket. They didn't apologize, or help the child up, or even look remotely remorseful about the fact that they just provided a life lesson to a very impressionable individual.
Push people around. You'll get what you want.
I really hope that person is or one day will be one of my readers. Yeah, I saw you. You're getting coal from Santa this year, my pushy friend, and probably every year after for the rest of your life, until you can open your own coal store and the little kids that you pushed around will all be environmentalists who will have you shut down for ruining the earth and then you'll be on the street and everyone will push you around. You deserve it.
Typically Canadians are the politest people around. We apologize when someone bumps us. But when Christmas comes around —look out! We turn into after-midnight-over-fed-gremlins. Yeah, and we'll push kids around to get what we want.
Remember a few years back when the Tickle-Me Elmo doll came out or those creepy Furby things, and people DIED during the shopping frenzy? They died! And it was probably someone related to Mr. I'm-gonna-shove-a-child I saw earlier. Merry Christmas, I killed someone in your family so I could get a ridiculous doll that was the least popular item by Easter but I don't feel bad about it because I-GOT-THE-DOLL.
This is what Christmas has become. A show of I'm bigger and I have more money, so I can push others around (even kids!) because I'm more entitled to that item than the average person who has to work like mad to make ends meet.
All year long, we teach our children to respect others and to treat others the way they would want to be treated. To care for those who are less fortunate. We all like to talk about Christmas being the season of giving, about good will towards men and all that, but that's not the case.
Christmas is a free-for-all, we'll talk a good show and we'll even donate to the local church or to the food bank, but if anyone gets in the way of the newest fad item this year, we'll cut you.
It makes me sad that I'm raising two, soon to be three children in a world where full grown eligible voters have no problem pushing kids around to see a toy on a department store shelf.
You know what, those kids are going to grow up and have the final say in what sort of establishment passes for an acceptable nursing home. Those kids are going to grow up and make laws about what senior citizens can and can not do.
So maybe just maybe pushing around the people that are going to be running this country when you are sitting in adult diapers is not the best plan in the world. Just sayin'.
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