Why I Shop

I shop because I love the sensations of it. I love to enter a store and feel that rush of scented air, see the piles of goods all around, the colors, the textures, the whirl of signs vying for my attention. I love the sounds – the music, the clitter-clatter of carts and registers and high heels tapping, the murmur of voices, sometimes low, sometimes sharp and loud.

I love to be out among people. To pass them in an aisle. The occasional moment of eye contact, the warm smile or hello. I like to stand before a cashier and fumble out my cash or swipe my card with that one definitive stroke.

I like to look for things, to sort and order among too many choices. I like to feel and weigh the value of an object in my hand, to measure the weave of a fabric, and shake the garment out into its full style. I like to imagine – what my life would be like with each new object in it, how that coffee cup or this candle would or would not fit into my home, into my life. I like to make decisions. Some things I leave behind. Most things I leave behind. Useless clutter adds only weight and mass to a life already pleasantly full. But, sometimes, I find a new treasure, a possession to be prized for its comfort, its vivid hue, its craftsmanship. The passing of goods from one set of human hands to another, even if those anonymous hands are located on the other side of the world and had to send their small bit of art to me through trucks and ships and commerce.

I like commerce. I like being part of the marketplace, as people have always been. I like the hunt, the gathering, filling that ancient urge to group enough goods together to survive, even if survival is no longer on the line when I purchase a faux cashmere cranberry scarf. I like the concentrating of human energy that money and merchandise represent, that basic, tangible, physical exchange between essentially spiritual beings.

And I like to give things to others. So, for me, Christmas is the perfect holiday. I love the shopping.

Coming next: Why I Love Gifts and Giving