> $850,000,000,000.00

 https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/retailers-shrug-off-stock-turmoil-and-ring-up-strong-holiday-sales-14820420

This holiday season a six year sales record was hit -- USA spent more than $850 Billion dollars...let that sink in. Merry Christmas?


I've felt a numb boredom to the point of skipping Christmas Eve services. I have pondered; was it no snow, no watching those kids I purchased for open the gifts, my missing my always under-foot feline companion--on and on...I feel for me I have become so accustomed to our commercialization of Christmas that I need to re-engage myself with the core, true (self) core of this holiday to enjoy in a more natural way. 


 Perhaps, hearing that church pews hit record numbers of worshipers or there's a significant rise in random door-to-door carolers amid the worldly chaos or that the homeless population is on a decline. I dunno but hearing about Wall Street and Mastercard usage numbers just gives joy to me--the kind of Joy that says, yes!, this is why I felt a numb (disengage) boredom!  I am overcome with traditional Christmas boredom, the kind that tells me all this is not what Christmas is about...

The First Noel (click to listen)

Priorities

What's really sad to me, is the media creating more crap rather than helping to bridge the gap.  I know, many disagree with this, I took a small beating on Twitter (shrugs)!  However, I regret perhaps that some can't see the advantage true media could have in today's times.  As if so 'brainwashed' by cheap media, scare and ratings tactics that anything outside that is problematic (ratings v. unbiased fact and positive change).
Maybe I am not wording correctly.

I know that I am not out there being angry and hateful and stirring pots to get heated reactions.  I am not out there with a heart of hurting people or nature.  I am not out there with a soul filled with me, me, me...
Yet, I feel at times held accountable for those who are.

My catch phase is; "sorry."  Even when I have done nothing; I am bumped into, I say, "sorry" I see someone belittled somewhere by another, if I have opportunity, I say "I'm sorry."

Because ya know what, this current state the whole world is in, not just America, is pathetically sorry!

Maybe I am a blind fool and should just keep my head down and mouth shut, which is what many have told me in my life, but when I feel something deeply it is as if wild horses are dragging it out...

What I feel right now is a whole lot of many emotions at once and the media, our local media is stoking the fire.  FYI, it's Summer and we don't need any more heat.

I shall say no more, just keep on keeping on, with my head bowed down and my hands clasped together, for prayer is greater than words.

Escape

imaginative fantasy; 
creative, playful
brightly colored
outside of the lines
whimsically 


furl a brow


save it for the big screen
top the box office on Christmas day


leisurely outlets;
bold, brazen
multidemensional 
stark cases of reality
with a twist
Hollywood style


escape