Common Grounds Online

Glenn Lucke, Round Sunglasses: A Case Study in a Trend

I read an interesting piece in the New York Times today about how multiple designers, without collusion, brought forth round sunglasses this year. And given that such artifacts have about a one year gestation period before coming to market, the writer, Eric Wilson, digs into what happened a year ago to bring about this state of affairs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/fashion/11SUNGLASSES.html?_r=1&8dpc

While I find this case study intriguing, probably all stories about fashion bring up similar questions for me:

Do people buy artifacts BECAUSE they're trendy? If so, why?

Related, given that fashion is at least significantly about creating obsolesence so as to separate you from your money, why play ball? I once asked a guy attending my church's high school summer "Beach Retreat" what the difference was between his $165 designer-of-the-moment sunglasses and the $10 sunglasses I brought for the object lessson. I had purposely picked cheap sunglasses that looked exactly like one of the popular versions of the Oakley sunglasses that were "in" at the moment.

I asked him, given that the lenses are the same, the frames look the same, and they accomplish the same function of blocking UV rays from the sun, what did you get for your EXTRA $155 that I didn't get?

His answer: Mine are cool.

Why? The brand. Identical look minus the brand.

In my estimation the kid had coughed up $155 from his wallet to place in various Oakley employee wallets. For what? For cool.

If it were my money, I still wouldn't spend the $155 on cool. But it's not my money, it's God's money. Is this the best way to steward God's money, purchasing cool? I think of messages I've heard from Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll recently about idolatry, and I don't know how Christians square their stewardship of God's money with playing ball with the idol of being cool and being fashionable.

Gentlemen, start your objections. I'll listen. :)

Doug Serven, Something Really Bad Happened to Me

Something really bad happened to me. I dropped my computer at the airport last month - it's a MacBookPro. It's sleek, powerful, shiny and I love it, and I dropped it right on the corner. There hadn’t been a hook to hang it on, and I didn't want to get all germy, so I hitched it over the partition corner in the bathroom – and then I watched it fall. It has a dented in bottom case. It still works fine, but it looked awful and I wanted it fixed.

My friend Kyle Dixon told me that the people at the apple store could fix it for me. They could give me a whole new computer if they want to. They have the power. It depends on if they’re cool and in a good mood, if they “love me.” He said I could go in and demand their help, and I most likely wouldn't get it. I didn't have a good reason for my complaint, even with Apple Care. They didn't have to help me. But they might. They might show favor to me, and I have heard of when they have done just that. Would they? I knew they had the power, but I hoped I can get some love too.

Amy Sherman, Chilling Words from the Prophets

“For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back My wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.” Amos 2:6-7

  The economic life of better-off Jews in Israel during the lifetimes of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Micah was rife with sin — sin not unknown to us in contemporary America. Consider the following three charges made against Israelite society by the prophets: could these not easily be made against our own society?

  First, repeatedly the prophets lament that the rich consume conspicuously while simultaneously disregarding the needy. In Amos 4:1, the prophet minces no words with overweight, wealthy, self-indulgent women: “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount
Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some more drinks!” The Sovereign Lord has sworn by His holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.” God hates to see conspicuous consumption and indolence juxtaposed with poverty and hopelessness.

Gary Peil, Black Friday

In one week the “Christmas Season” will officially begin. Even though stores have been putting up lights and Christmas decorations for a month now, the holiday shopping season will begin with an annual event known as Black Friday. On the day after Thanksgiving, stores and malls will open while it is still dark in order to get a quick start on the frenzy that Christmas shopping has become. A couple of years ago I got lured into participating in Black Friday. There were a couple of items I knew my kids wanted, and I figured I would not wait until the last minute to get my shopping done. I set my alarm for 5:00 in the morning, figuring that I would get to Target around 5:30. I was under the impression that Target was going to open at 5:00 and I didn’t think it was necessary to get there before the store was even open. I was in for a big surprise.

Urgent: Benny Hinn Needs Your Dollars So He Can Buy A Jet

Please, please do not give your end-of-the-year Christian donations to feed the hungry, rescue kidnapped children from the sex trade, train pastors in the developing world, or educate inner city minorities in a Christian school.

Instead, please be the best steward of God's money that you can be and help Benny Hinn pay off his new private plane, Dove One.  This is a crucial investment that will save Pastor Benny from the hassles of flying commercial and relying on unreliable affluent former friends to loan him their planes.

Read it all here.  Act now!

A Glutton for Contentment

Soon Thanksgiving will be here, and with our newly glutted bellies we’ll be catapulted full-force into a season of consumer frenzy, summarized best by the mantra “X shopping days left 'til Christmas.” (Funny, Advent used to be about anticipating a Savior). Already my inbox and mailbox are stuffed like Thanksgiving turkeys with “Special Holiday Offers,” and I’m wishing there were Tums to tame that horrible feeling of ambiguity that churns in my stomach around this time of year when I long to savor a true spirit of thankfulness without choking on the gluttony of the season, when I yearn to anticipate the Savior without dreading the frenetic, consumeristic clamoring of Christmas. Sigh……. Ay me.

So I’m taking a deep breath as I pause on this holiday precipice. And I’m basting my mind and heart in the things I want to remember this Thanksgiving and Advent season: