After a dental appointment yesterday, I had some time to kill while waiting for rush hour traffic to clear. Since I was right across the street from one of the larger malls in the area, I decided to brave what I knew to be their craziest week of the year, and get a couple of new holes in each earlobe.
The first thing that struck me was the relatively low crowd size. It's been at least a decade since I've been in a mall at xmas time, so the change was striking. It felt a little like visiting someone with a terminal disease (Amazonosis, let's call it) who has yet to come fully to grips with it.
The next thing that struck me was the normalcy of the crowd's spirit. None of the "Black Friday" madness we've seen in years past. Just happy people doing what they do on the Monday before xmas.
So it's my turn, and I'm sitting in the highchair (you know the one), and I'm the object of the attention of the two families waiting in line for their daughters to have various things pierced. Yep, mom, dad, siblings. No scowls or other dirty looks. One dad even asked, as I walked away, "Didn't that hurt? You didn't even flinch!" No judgement. No wariness. Just... "normal-ness". There is hope.
