My list was rather practical. I wasn't after the season's hottest toy or some fancy electronic gizmo. Even Dats' present is an "educational" one which requires no electricity. Nobody fought me for Dats' item.
The printer was going for $69 and usually retails for $200. Not only that, but it is a Kodak printer and Kodak produces the cheapest ink cartridges. Plus, it scans and copies and faxes - all functions which might come in handy in Haiti. Surprisingly, nobody fought me for this item either.
The GPS was a Magellan, selling also for $69. ($110 on Amazon.) We figured this thing would be helpful over the next few months as we make home and church visits to share about Haiti. Nobody fought for this thing at all - in fact, there were still quite a few on the shelf the next day.
The Kodak Easyshare camera was where the line formed. For those of you too smart to ever go to Walmart at 10 PM on a Thanksgiving night, let me describe the scene for you. In the center aisles are boxed displays of all sorts of cheap "treasures". Black cellophane plastic is wrapped tightly around each display - and is not to be tampered with until midnight. Any movement in the crowd of shoppers is slow and shoulder to shoulder. Some of the big ticket items form actual lines that wind up and down particular aisles - further restricting the movement of crowds within the store. Other items, like the Kodak camera, draw people who stand close by the display for two hours in order to get first grab.
I was one of those idiots standing beside the camera display for nearly two hours. I was idiot #5 and was joined ultimately by about 35 other idiots. We passed the time mainly by avoiding looking into each other's eyes. When patience began to run out (around 11:30 PM), some of the idiots started picking holes in the plastic and formulating guesses as to how many cameras the display box actually held. Eventually, idiots #1, #2 and #3 started sneaking cameras into their shopping carts even though we were still 20 minutes from the official unwrapping.
In the final 15 minutes, standing with Dats' gift on the floor between my feet, my legs went numb because people were pushing in so tight against me, I couldn't even shift my weight from side to side. When the signal came to unwrap, I was crushed up against the display box by the dozen people behind me, their arms reaching over and around me on all sides. It was a frenzy that strangely reminded me of starving people in some drought-stricken village swamping aid workers who are distributing bags of rice.
Honestly, it was a bit scary and a whole lot depressing. As I was getting pushed and elbowed, I started yelling, "IT'S JUST A CAMERA, PEOPLE!" I felt embarrassed and silly to be a part of it, and I fought my way out of the crowd as quickly as I could. (Oh, I grabbed my camera first ... I wasn't about to go home without a camera after wasting two hours of my life for it.)
I was in a shop today (a much quieter and calmer shopping experience) and overheard two women having this conversation:
Woman #1: Are you going to get anything?
Woman #2: I don't know. Probably not.
#1: Really? It's all 50% off.
#2: Well, I've hit the point where there's not anything that I really need. In fact, I've even hit the point where there's not anything I even WANT any more.
This is our reality and yet across this planet, 26,000 children under the age of 5 died today from malnutrition and preventable disease. Tomorrow, another 26,000 will die. So between now and Christmas morning, another 572,000 children under 5 will die tragic, preventable deaths.
Melissa gets on me about being a bit of a party pooper this time of year, and I try not to be. (Sometimes I try harder than others.) I do love seeing the kids get excited about presents under the tree and their reactions when they unwrap toys on Christmas morning are priceless. Still, I can't shake contrasting (in the back of my mind) the joy I feel in those moments with the absolute despair those 26,000 fathers must feel in watching their precious little ones suffer and die.
Jesus said, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
From Isaiah 58:
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
P.S. All of us idiots stood around for two hours for a $50 digital camera which we assumed was a great bargain, but not one of us researched the model on line to see if it really was a good deal. If we had, we would have discovered (as I did just tonight) that it was impossible to compare sale price to regular retail price since this model has not been sold previously in the U.S. You can't even find it on the Kodak website. You can, however, find it available in the Czech Republic! Apparently, it retails there for 1,438.50 Celkems ... sooooo, still not sure if I got a good deal or not. Definitely not worth beating each other up over.
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