This haiku was inspired by the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last week, one that will inevitably result in a spill to eclipse the Exxon Valdez over 20 years ago.

I find it curious that the two largest maritime oil spills in history both occurred in such proximity to U.S. coastlines — a coincidence I can’t help but imagine has to do with my country’s reverence for greed as a principle. We have mining disasters, oil spills and countless other industrial accidents — most of which are treated as collateral damage in our never-ending quest for higher profits.

for the sake of gold
we’ll create new disasters
to eclipse the old

I’ve never been good at sending Christmas cards to my friends, no matter how many of my friends think to send me holiday greetings. That hasn’t changed this year, but since I know a few of those friends visit this site on occasion, I’ve decided to post a sort of online Christmas wish. This one goes out to my friends, family and anyone else who happens to view it.

By the way, if the meaning of this haiku is too muted, click here to see a different angle on the same sentiment.

this Christmas I wish
for gifts not purchased or sold,
but born of the soul

Comments

• December 24, 2009, apreziosi writes: Hmm ... too muted for the masses, perhaps.
• December 24, 2009, howard writes: yes, but i'm addicted to ambiguity. i hope your holidays in well this year Anthony :)
• December 24, 2009, Qazse writes: howard, very nice haiku. I like how the handwritten haiku on lovely snowflake paper (wrapping?) comes off... very very nice.
  
  Thank you for the mention. As you know I can be a a tech knucklehead at times. I think I inadvertently trashed your ping back thingy.
  
  Merry Christmas my man.
• December 25, 2009, howard writes: thanks, Qazse -- the background is from a gift card holder, if that provides any extra incongruity.
  
  and about the pingback, it was probably about as inadvertent as your deletion of it was -- i'm pretty sure it's just an automatic WordPress thing that sends it out in the first place. no worries.
  
  hope the holidays go well for you and yours this year.
• December 25, 2009, Karl Martino writes: Thank you Howard.
  
  I hope you, your family, and the world have a Merry Christmas touched with those gifts of the heart and soul as well.
• December 26, 2009, howard writes: thanks, Karl. we had a pretty wonderful Christmas gathering. i hope yours was wonderful as well.

*
It was the blackest of Fridays for Jdimytai “Jimmy” Damour (and his grieving loved ones):

Emergency workers tried to revive Mr. Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, at the scene, but he was pronounced dead an hour later at Franklin Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream.

Four other people, including a 28-year-old woman who was described as eight months pregnant, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries.

Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, who is in charge of the investigation for the Nassau police, said the store lacked adequate security. He called the scene “utter chaos” and said the “crowd was out of control.” As for those who had run over the victim, criminal charges were possible, the lieutenant said. “I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it is not,” he said. “Certainly it was a foreseeable act.”

…

Some shoppers who had seen the stampede said they were shocked. One of them, Kimberly Cribbs of Queens, said the crowd had acted like “savages.” Shoppers behaved badly even as the store was being cleared, she recalled.

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping.” (full story)

Comments

• November 29, 2008, Anthony writes: This Christmas shopping nonsense has been a recurring theme over on my blog. For the sake of a bargain, people camp out overnight and/or stand on line at 4am waiting for stores to open. They lack the ability to stand back and look at themselves for what they have become - retail whores who will sacrifice anything in pursuit of a bargain.
  I think it's time we took the Christ out of Christmas and did something on the legislative level to keep stores from opening before daybreak.
• November 29, 2008, howard writes: Yes, in fact yours is one of the blogs I read via rss (and due to the extra effort it takes to proceed to the actual site, I rarely comment).
  
  I have so many mixed feelings about Black Friday and the consumer culture in general. I stopped being a Black Friday practitioner about ten years ago. It wasn't with scenes like this in mind, but now I have yet another justification for avoiding all that is Black Friday.
• November 30, 2008, bill writes: I don't know that leaving Christ in or taking him out of Christmas will have any effect at all, but I've seen few clearer cases for de-commercialization of the holidays than this. However one feels about our economic structure, it's things like this that give capitalism a very bad name. Sadly, it seems like the inevitable outcome when you have a system predicated on greed.
  
  I'm just glad I've yet to be sucked into the marketing monstrosity that is Black Friday.
• December 1, 2008, howard writes: Ditto on that last bit.
  
  As far as Christ in or out of Christmas, I think the situation is much more analogous to the money changers in the Temple. It wasn't the Temple, but the way certain people tried to use it to sate their own greed. Same thing with Christmas, I think.
• December 3, 2008, qazse writes: “They kept shopping.”
  they were educated thus -
  martyr makers