Air Jordans Bring Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Photo: Courtesy of sfgate.com

The spirit of Christmas filled the air in shopping malls this morning as eager throngs of shoppers crowded storefronts around the nation in search of the new Nike Air Jordan Concord 11 sneakers.

The mainstream media used words like "riot" and "frenzy" to describe the chaos of these "Nike-crazed mob scenes," but they are seeing the downside as usual.

Sure, if you insist on looking through the telephoto lens of an expensive professional camera and seeing the facts, there might have been a little mayhem and violence. If you're obsessed with recording your actual first-person observations, I suppose the kids might have seemed a teensy bit rowdy when they tore off the mall front doors. But what if you let a little Christmas cheer inform your perspective. What if you choose to look closer and see this morning's jostling hordes through the translucent prism of grandma's favorite glass Christmas bulb...

• Seattle police were not using approved crowd control methods - they were simply welcoming shoppers with a playful dousing of yuletide pepper spray.
• A San Francisco Bay Area man was not recklessly discharging a firearm in a Richmond mall parking lot; he was joyously marking the arrival of the new shoe with the gift of gunfire.
• Unruly mobs didn't trample innocent bystanders at malls in Michigan. Some dancers are just less skilled than others with the new holiday "Nutcracker Stomp" craze that's sweeping the nation.
• An Atlanta woman didn't abandon two young kids in the car in the mall parking lot while she waited in line for hours to buy sneakers. The (apparently ungrateful) kids were simply being given ample opportunity to compose wish-filled letters to Santa (in their heads).

Maybe these unruly masses of holiday shoppers were simply bounding with joy at the pinnacle of this most wonderful time of year? Better yet, they were most likely anxious to get their newly acquired Air Jordans posted on eBay at a fair price, generously hoping to ease the burdens of sorrowful last minute shoppers. Could be, couldn't it? I just know that's it!

If you're open to the wonders of the season, Christmas joy will fill your heart and comfort your soul. You'll find holiday magic everywhere, and it will be as heart-warming and abundant as peace and goodwill at a New Jersey Wal-Mart on Black Friday morning.