For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down

Dear Eugene,

Last night I dropped off my daughter at church early, had a few hours to myself.  I picked up some CDs from the library, Christmas music I didn't know exists until then.  I picked up a magazine about Canada's history and thought about Sears.

So I wandered into Sears, soon to be out of business.  I was looking for a magazine of sorts, a final edition of the Sears Christmas catalog.  For keepsake.  To freeze a moment as it were.

Well, there was none.


There were empty shelves and fixtures for sale, hollow workers wondering about their last shift, how it will all go down right to the final minute, service for sale but to whom next.

I still remember a conversation I had with a Zellers toy department personnel, very close to the store's final days.  It was around this time of the year.  My son was suffering from a high fever that wouldn't go away.  I was there to get him something to cheer him up.  (Ended up getting a Storm Hawks Energy Sword that I played with just now.  Ailment...energy; get it?)

Of course we talked about his plan when Zellers would be no more.  He said No worries, Target is coming, bigger and better, these Americans know what they're doing in this cut-throat retail business, gotta shake up the Canadian marketplace, he himself guaranteed a spot in the toy department already, so it really is just some getting-used-to, a good change all-in-all, a new Boss who knows the ropes better...

I can see his earnest face of good news proclamation even now.

I don't think I have ever seen him in Target.  Target wasn't there long enough for me to remember faces.

People talk about Sears now.  Not about the hollow people; who cares about the empty shelves.  They say the prices are not coming down low enough for something going under.  They are looking to scavenge more-than-good deals from someone who has nowhere to go but down.

For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down...

We think getting a good deal is the biggest deal.  God thinks the people is His biggest deal.  We might set up pre-authorized payment to sponsor someone in the Third World to somewhat subdue our moral dis-ease, but we don't think twice penny-pinching our closest neighbors, the waitress, the garage-door repairman, the young man who asked if he could aerate our lawn.

We say Christmas is a time of giving, but many think they are in hell.  Last night I saw a man slammed an opened box of audio system on the glass display shelf and demanded, "I am returning this!"  The retail worker gently replied, "Umm...what is wrong with it?"

"Subwoofer!" the consumer bellowed.

As if he was yelling at an irksome three-legged street dog.

Yours, Alex

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