Messages from China

A friend's mother was visiting from her home in the Middle East. Our friend told us she liked to shop recreationally--and on the cheap. We all laughed about how his mother sounded just like my mother and I volunteered to take the two Moms to some recreational shopping locals in Muskogee. Of course, one of these was the Hobby Lobby.

Ah, Hobby Lobby (sigh), I could write a thousand analyses of you. Perhaps I will. For now, I thought I'd share with everyone the stuff  I encountered there. One can meditate almost endlessly on these items.

  Here's the first: 

This just worries me. Clearly, someone is meant to find this a sentimental heart-warmer. The possibility that a Christian would find this charming is just disturbing all by itself. Santa and the Christ child? Is this supposed to be happening in Bethlehem at the actual event? Why would Santa exist at that time? This needs interpreting.

Perhaps it is this meant to be an argument for Santa's origin: the birth of Christ spontaneously spawned Santa. Way to mess up a kid's theological understanding!

Another possible interpretation: This is an atheistic argument asserting that these two characters have equal historical validity and perform the same function: to comfort children and childish adults.

Or: The people of China who made this just don't care that the story of Santa and the story of the nativity are generally regarded as distinct from each other, their sharing Christmas time as a trope being more or less irrelevant.

Here's another interesting one:

The people of China made this for us, too. Mind you, it was undoubtably ordered by USA manufacturers who found no problem with weird mind games involved in any attempt to appreciate the aesthetics of these objects. And, after all, as purely decorative items, they are meant to be appreciated aesthetically. But I can't even get to the place where I'm looking at their qualities as art. I can't stop reading them as a message. (I know that's not everybody's problem. I'm a rhetorician. I can't help it. But indulge my thinking here for a minute.) 

I get one clear message from these objects: "Dear American Consumers, we know that many of you wish to celebrate your African roots. We also know that an equal number of you want to demonstrate that your whiteness doesn't get in the way of your love of diversity. Bravo to all of you! Knowing that real African art would be more expensive, we offer you here this just-as-good option made in China. We're sure that your participation in a global economy that has almost completely eliminated US manufacturing and led African exporters to the brink of starvation will go utterly unnoticed by you. So, please enjoy celebrating the beauty and dignity of the African people while not giving a crap about them as historical realities."

But our American manufacturing outsourcers send me rebuttals to my cynical interpretations of their objects d'art. And they don't leave anything to chance. They write it out plainly:

I will assume the William James quote is meant to make me want to buy it so I can demonstrate to all who see it that I am deep. The act of paying money to acquire a piece of resin that asserts I am not a superficial person is meant to be completely forgotten once it is in place in my home or office. 

A slightly less cynical interpretation how I am to perceive the William James hunk of resin: Looking at this makes me want to be less superficial. Therefore, I will buy it and it will act as a permanent reminder to me to be less superficial. I will ignore the fact that my profound love of the sentiment was sparked while walking the aisles of a store asking myself what I might like to buy.

Or, I'm meant to buy it for someone else and thereby demonstrate my appreciation of that person's deep, thoughtful nature. In this case, I'll have to hope I'm mostly wrong about my friend, lest she think, "You bought me a cheap hunk of resin to celebrate my focus on high ideals? Thanks for one more thing to keep track of and take care of."

The item on the bottom of the picture is clearly meant to shut up my cynicism about the aesthetic value of the items around it. But, "God makes all things beautiful in his time." is complete nonsense. And I sure better not get that to give a friend. There's a snarky message in there if I do. Or maybe this is a great gift for a husband to give a wife -- bundled with gift certificates for Botox injections, maybe?

These three are enough for now. Rest assured, I have many more to share.