Redtree Times

Boxed In, 2019

The crowd, still shouting, gives way before us. We plough our way through. Women hold their aprons over their faces and go stumbling away. A roar of fury goes up. A wounded man is being carried off.

–Erich Maria Remarque, The Road Back (1931)

You might think these lines from the sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque are describing a scene from World War I or its aftermath. Actually, it’s just a retelling of past Black Fridays at any Walmart around the country. American carnage, indeed.

It’s been many, many years since I ventured out into the throngs of bargain seekers on this Friday after Thanksgiving and I don’t plan on changing that pattern today. Hey, it might not even be as bad as it once was since there is so much more online shopping. But I am not going to find out.

If you have to tempt fate and fight the crowds, I urge you to make an art gallery one of your stops. For one reason, the art there will calm you down, put things into perspective. For another, art is a wonderful gift for someone you love. And it makes an even better gift to yourself.

The last reason is that buying art supports the truly small local businesses meaning that the money from that purchase stays predominantly in that area, recirculating and helping other local businesses many times over.

Doing so makes your local small business community stronger and more responsive to your wants and needs. Plus, it supports artists who depend on every single sale in order to maintain their sometimes tenuous livelihoods.

Not only is it a unique item that comes from their hands and hearts, but it is also something that keeps their dreams alive.

It’s a rare thing that buying art does; sustaining the dreams and souls of others while obtaining a work that feeds your own.

So, instead of battling crowds, avoid the mad rush and head to a local gallery. Feed a dream– the artist’s and your own.

Here’s a favorite composition of mine from Philip Glass, Mad Rush. It was written for the Dalai Lama‘s first North American address back in 1979. Written originally for organ– it was written on the organ at the Saint John the Divine Cathedral in NY– it was meant to be an open-ended piece that could be shortened or extended without the audience noticing to accommodate the vague timetable of the Dalai Lama’s scheduled appearance. It has been recognized over the years as an iconic piece of modern music. Glass performs it here in Montreal from 2015. I like this performance, finding it very meditative as I watch his hands on the keyboard. The antithesis to the combat of shopping.