BY KLAUS DÖRING
PLASTIC money (better known as credit cards), loneliness and advertising – that’s a dangerous mixture, owing to more and more people falling straight into shopping ecstasy.
Yesterday, the sunbeam touched us too much outside, the heat maybe too much too. We were on the way to a shopping mall. Yes, they were really tempting us with their offers. The credit cards of many people glowed – everyone was all right for the money.
We don’t need decent clothes any more! Our shoes make us a laughingstock. Top stylish or even the latest fashion for a few pesos, sure, we can afford it!
Women especially (really?) arrange to meet very often for substantial shopping sprees. It’s just fun, but sometimes it becomes a competition: Who gets hold of the most stylish and best special offers? It’s paradoxical; actually they are not able to afford it. In spite of their strained financial situation, many people do unnecessary free-living shopping. They feel happy, content, satisfied, and relaxed.
Is shopping a substitutive or vicarious satisfaction because of less love and care? Yes, for a short moment shopping satisfies and eases mostly unfulfilled longings for love, appreciation, receiving attention and affection.
The shopping ecstasy will be followed by a happiness-intoxication. The new dress becomes a four-leaf clover and a lucky break. But, we became addicted.
Disastrous, unlucky and awkward in shopping is that the special offers are not really needed. That’s the point: it’s just a kick-down which can be felt while shopping for useless things. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, or cosmetics will be used just once or once in a while, they will be cleared or concealed and hidden from other people. Our conscience is pricking us. Depression follows, an empty inwardness causes pain – up to the next ecstasy!
It’s a dangerous vicious circle, which can bring us to a financial precipice. For a long time experts have warned: “The limits between pleasure, desire, frustration, and ecstasy shopping are fluent and fluid.” I remember the lady yesterday “trying” to pay an amazing amount with three credit cards – always getting the cashier’s “Excuse Ma-am, there is a problem with your credit card!”. The lady went away by saying the wonderful sentence: “Okay lang, actually I don’t need all this stuff!” Wow.
Let me anticipate this: I don’t want to mess up anybody’s shopping mall stroll. Not everybody buys a lot and is at the same time shopping-addicted. Boisterous and superfluous “reward-shopping” can be absolutely normal. Only a permanent recurring irresistible shopping compulsion needs an immediate action.
By the way: Love and care are emotions inherent in human beings. They are crucial in every relationship. Care refers to a feeling of concern or interest or the act of attending to someone or something. Love, on the other hand, bears broader meaning.
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