Sunday, November 2, 2008

Life at the speed of Walmart

I had always thought that as I grew older, the passage of time flew faster. Trying to pin down dates and times before they fluttered away was like trying to capture a budgie that had escaped it's cage. Just as my hand was poised to gently grasp the still bird, it would burst into flight and exit through an open window.

Time, like the fugitive bird, is having its way with me.

The one accomplice in the fleeting of time I have discovered is the stocking schedule in retail, something I begin to notice right around the middle of July.

School is barely out for the Summer, and the stores are already stocked with back-to-school supplies.

I receive my daughter's first mid-term report in the mail near the beginning of September and the stores are decked out in Halloween costumes, isles stocked with the nauseating smell of sugar in various shapes and sizes. In another section of the store, shelves are sparkling with holiday tinsel and shiny glass ornaments, which is difficult to contemplate while still wearing warm-weather clothing.

Ah, poor Thanksgiving...it gets lost in the shuffle, tucked away somewhere between baked goods and Nesco roasters, then disappearing almost as quickly as it takes the average family gathering to wolf down a turkey with all the trimmings.

Finishing up my last-minute hustle for holiday gifts, sales of rolling filing cabinets, manila envelopes and office supplies hearken the approach of Tax Season, as if it were too, a holiday. Along for the ride are marshmallow Peeps and plastic Easter baskets, a sweet distraction from the looming date with the Internal Revenue Service. In the sale isles are last years New Year's Eve plastic champagne flutes and paper whistles. Now, how could I have possibly missed New Year's?

And then it starts all over again. School supplies return to the store like the return of an errant parakeet to his empty cage.

Walmart, quit rushing me through life. It rushes by way too quickly all by itself.

1 comment:

  1. Amazing how much influence retailers have on our culture.

    Superbly written post; you should consider expanding it a bit for a op-ed piece somewhere, even if it's just the local paper.

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