Reading Gary's rant, and Jim's reply, offers quite a bit of food for thought for me. By this time next month (if all goes according to plan) I should be the proud father of a brand new baby girl. The rampant consumerism of Christmas (I think I would've enjoyed Christmas much more as it used to be...not a religious holiday per se, but as an excuse to drink...curses to the Puritans!) is something I never really had to deal with before, but it may come-to-pass now. How will I react to my little girl needing that thing "she just must have?" I would like to think I would handle it in a way that was educational for her, to help her build ethics, but who knows?
I think in a culture such as ours, one of relative wealth and affluence, materialism is a natural outgrowth. Jim's point about working class families is a good one, and I'd bet in very poor areas the contrast is even more stark. I also think people live increasingly busy lives these days, in an attempt to satisfy their own ambitions, and to fill every waking moment of their kids' lives with activities (what ever happened to giving them a piece of paper and a box of crayons? Or kicking them and their friends out into the back yard during the summer? Not an option in some areas, but definitely in mine...).
This year on Black Friday, I went over to my friends' houses for an all-day orgy of gaming...from 10am to 12 midnight it was nothing but Settlers of Catan, a new game called (IIRC) Dungeoneer, and of course D&D (which included my one friend's son). I felt that was time better spent than sitting in the Wal-mart parking lot at 5am, any time...
Damon. ------------------------------------------------------------ Damon Agretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html Now Building: Bandai's Pz.H auf GWII (105mm) "Wespe" ------------------------------------------------------------ -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.11/191 - Release Date: 12/2/2005 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
