Epiphany in the mall

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

It started as a simple mission: Go to the mall with list in hand and buy a few Christmas presents.

But somewhere between the first store and the last purchase came an epiphany that had nothing to do with folks from the East bearing gifts.

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The epiphany began with a "not on the list" informational visit to an electronics store - a nice way of saying I was looking for things to add to my gift list. The store was filled with items, many of which I couldn't identify, though several seemed to be variations on each other made by competing companies.

I asked myself: How much time must one spend: to understand these items, to weigh the merits of one against another and to learn how to use them? Given that investment of time, how do they better or simplify life?

After stumbling out of the store feeling like an accidental time-traveling neanderthal, I set out for the relative safety of a department store. Once there, I was assaulted by seemingly endless racks and shelves of clothes in seemingly endless styles and colors. Suddenly the safe department store felt like mission impossible.

Then came the epiphany: Is this what our freedom as humans, but specifically as Americans, has come to? Does our ability to choose free or enslave us?

Certainly this was not an original thought. Recent popes and other deep thinkers have said the same thing. But nothing turns a skeptic into a believer faster than staring the beast in the face.