Boxed Out

Driving on the interstate depresses me.  I peer out my window and see track homes followed by a clump of massive box shops and strip malls followed by more track homes and mono-colored apartment buildings slowly usurping the farmland and woods with "For Sale" signs in front of them.  Soon those woods and farms will only be found in some reference in the neighborhood entrance sign of the track homes built over them: "North Glen, "Meandering Brook," "Cedar Ridge."

But the names of the box stores remain the same as I pass by mile after mile: Game Stop, Costco, Walmart, Veda, Michaels, Starbucks, Olive Garden, Barnes and Noble, Bed, Bath, and Beyond...we've widdled down all our stores into a few corporate names.  And I believe many of us are conditioned to be too scared to venture to buy anything from the minute number of mom and pop shops that somehow still remain.  We don't even seem to like to purchase anything made outside of China (I found it interesting how the Japanese tourists in Guam would go to KMart and buy "Guam" postcards, mugs, and playing cards that were made in China.)  I am repulsed by how "streamlined" we are in our selection of shops (can I call them that?).

I feel like these stores and homes represent how America, whether it realizes it or not, is draining our creativity.  And the sad part is that many people I know who have college degrees in something creative now can't find creative jobs and are relegated to finding a work at these box stores.  And, since they can't afford anything else, they must live in an apartment the same color and design as the next building that practically touches it.  I don't blame them.  There are not many options.

Yes, America is a land of plenty.  In general we can buy whatever semblance of something we want whether it be a jacket, groceries, towels, or Italian food.  But chances are that they came from some huge corporate machine that buys from the same few places and plants.  We can't expect much creativity or anything homegrown.  For that we have to eek together enough money to visit other countries that have not yet been completely dulled by our American Dream.

Perhaps our only remaining outlet for selling anything creative and new will head where everything else (including community and friendship) seems to be heading--the world of the virtual.