I haven't been able to get the Wal-mart stampede in New York on Black Friday off of my mind. There was a cell phone video of the event broadcast on Fox news this morning. People are truly hard core these days. I was shocked to hear the victim was a young man of 34. For some reason, I had pictured him as an older gentleman. He is an immigrant and I read where his dad was devastated and told the press his son had never even started a family. As a result, this poor guy never really gets going in his life because a bunch of greedy shoppers want to save 40% on their flat screen high-def TV's and vacuum cleaners. Unbelievable.
Along with the cell phone video, Fox had a psychologist commentator on to discuss his thoughts. He said he felt that people have become hooked on the idea of piles of gifts under their tree. Extreme expectations coupled with the state of the economy and people will do anything to save a buck. While I can understand saving a buck, I simply can not wrap my mind around stampeding a human being in the process.
This entire event has caused me a tremendous amount of introspection. What is the difference between needs and wants?
A need is fairly simple: we need food, water, shelter and clothing. We need our God, our family and our friends. But a want - a want is something we desire to have, but don't necessarily need.
Electronic gadgets first come to mind as a want. Between all the members of my family, we have pretty much every gaming system ever made. We all have cell phones. We all have CD players in our cars (though mine isn't operational as of this writing). In fact, we all have our own cars. We also all have computers and TV's.
In my house alone, there are six TV's. The only fancy high-def one is in my son's room. It was a birthday gift to him last year. The others are older versions and two are flat screens.
Do we really need six TV's?
One of the items the Wal-mart stampeders were after were discounted vacuum cleaners. I happen to have two of them. One is my mom's old Oreck and one I have recently purchased - ironically from Wal-mart. I have news for the stampeders: the Wal-mart one is a big disappointment. If they waited outside all night for a vacuum cleaner from Wal-mart, they really are fools.
Do I really need two vacuum cleaners?
The list is endless and I am ashamed of the amount of wants I own that I have thought of in the past as a need.
How many things are you asking Santa for this year that are wants Vs. needs?
2 comments:
Well I'm not asking Santa for anything. I haven't gotten a gift at Christmas since my mom died. I guess it really never bothered me.
When I was young, I used to think that if you owned more than you could fit in your car, then you owned too much. I think I'm at that point again. Yes, we are always running after those wants and this year it cost a young man his life. So very sad.
I've always felt it was better to give than to receive. I kind of get embarrassed when I receive gifts but I enjoy the heck out of giving them, not matter how silly or corny they are. I really get into the wrapping paper thing, bows and curly ribbon.
I found myself "blessed" with doubles since I cleaned out Mom and dad's house. Fortunately I found homes for most of the repeats though.
Sadly, it has been drilled into our heads that unless we have a load of gifts under our tree, our Christmas will be less than perfect. The holidays come with certain expectations for many people and as we all know, expectations go hand in hand with disappointment. Such is life.
My sympathies go out to this man's family. My heart breaks for them over and over as I read about what happened to their son. I am stunned that this has happened and I hope the authorities can prosecute to the fullest extent. Someone needs to be held accountable for what happened to this guy and I hope Walmart changes the way they conduct their Black Friday business in the future. If Walmart would keep enough merchandise in stock so everyone would get a chance to purchase sale items, there wouldn't be such chaos. When they only keep a few laptops in stock at rock bottom prices, there is definitely going to be a problem.
And yes, Walmart vacuum cleaners are junk. I have thrown more of theirs away than I can shake a stick at.
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