Today's meaning of Christmas (Part 2)

It is a cold morning. The kind of morning when you want to sleep in, stay in your nice warm bed. But there was no bed for Lisa. She was standing in a long line, outside her local Wal-Mart, waiting for the doors to open. She was with 2 friends. Jenny, who was a few years younger and full of energy, and Joann, who was older and quite calm, even old fashion. There they stood together in line with people they did not know. Many people. The group in front of them, 3 or 4 at least, were getting on Lisa’s nerves. A group of girls that reminds her of the stuck up type she was in school with many years ago. Lisa was not the most popular is high school. She was part of a small group of average kids who really didn’t fit in all that well with the jocks and cheerleaders.

As the three stand there in line, listening to the group in front of them, Lisa looks at her friend Jenny and rolls her eyes. Without a word being spoken, she just told Jenny “oh listen to them. ‘It’s all about me, I love me!’ Those chicks are pissing me off!” Jenny replied with a soft chuckle, as she shivers in the cold. The three of them turn to each other a talk quietly to each other. Jenny said “I can’t wait to get inside, this is nuts!” “Yea, what were we thinking”, said Joann.

By now, so many people had arrived that the line went well past them. The end was nowhere in site. The three had threatened to walk back to the car to warm up, but decided that it wasn’t worth the longer wait. After all, they have made it this far. Why take the chance on loosing that great deal on the kids’ Christmas presents. Suddenly Lisa sees movement in the line ahead of them. She said to her friends, in a desperate voice “oh please let be the doors opening!” Her wish had come true. People had starting filing into the store. As the line moves closer to the doors, Lisa and her friends go over the game plan once again. “Cell phones on? Check! Now remember, if you find something on my list, call me”, said Lisa to her friends.

Finally they make it do the doors. Once they enter, they find a mass of confusion. People are running around in a craze, dashing for carts and asking for help to find items. The three go over the plan one last time, then split up in different directions to enjoy the shopping utopia.

Lisa is on her own now. In a store full of people, she feels ironically lonely. She walked over to the shopping cart area only to find it full of angry shoppers ripping and tearing at the train of carts, attempting to separate them. Lisa is not the aggressive type. She would rather back down from a situation than play a leading role. As she finds her way to a shopping cart, she is met with hundreds of militant people, all wanting to get their hands on what has now become a precious commodity. Finally she is within reach. She extends her arm to grab one, but another overtakes it. She grabs the next one in line, holding and protecting it like it’s her first-born child.

Lisa thinks to herself, as she walks away, “the hardest part is over, on with some shopping baby”! If she only knew what was to come!!!!