Shopping philosophy (one for the girls)

I haven't had the opportunity to write until this evening as I have (oh joy of joys) been shopping. As is the case for most women, my understanding of the verb 'to shop' encompasses not only the purchase of items (preferably dresses and shoes, but I am open to persuasion) but also the act of nosing around the shops, trying for size pretty bits of expensive nothingness that I have no intentions of buying and pretending, for a few hours, that I have a lifestyle quite different to that which I currently 'enjoy'.

I am a great believer in shopping. I agree that blatant consumerism and greed have been at the root of much of the trouble that the global economy now faces and yet, still, I am not unconvinced that the perfect dress will change my life. And this hope sustains me, even when I am perfectly satisfied with the life that I live.

The perfect dress may only be perfect for one glittering, wonderful moment and then, the elation will pass and life will continue as it was before. BUT for that one moment I will feel confident and beautiful and elegant and pleased to be myself. And by God that is one helluva high, a high that, from the moment it passes, I will thirst to enjoy again. Thus, the shopping addiction is manifest.

Safe in the knowledge that the moment passes and that the starlight magic of a dress's fifteen minutes lasts just that (or sometimes a few hours), and knowing that funds are currently not as healthy as one might hope, today I thoroughly enjoyed tasting the wares without feeling under pressure to give them a home for life.

And it's still wonderful to escape for those moments and pretend to be all sorts of elegant people with elegant lives. The power of imagination with which we as creatures of nature have been gifted is immense and it is this power that lights the darkest moments or simply keeps us company when we need it (I suspect that it is also that power that fills us with a wonderful glow of excitement when we wear what we believe to be 'the perfect dress').

Today my imagination went window shopping, tomorrow it might put bread on the table - who knows. The imagination is mystical and gives us reasons to laugh about things and events that don't even exist. Who's to say that what is real is the matter, the tangible things and surfaces that we can see and touch? It is as much the fleeting ideas and the daydreams that pass through our minds as we peruse the sale rails, it is the ridiculous conversations that we have with close friends and the private jokes we share. It is also forgetting to buy the milk and only realising after you've made a cup of tea and it is washing a navy sock with the whites wash.

Today the meaning of life was shopping and when it's all a great pretense and an act of creativity (in this case, one that never leaves the fitting room), what harm, what fun, what a way to pass a happy day. As long as it is not every day, in which case it would become a chore and with that, a bore.

Thank the lord and all the lucky stars for 70% off sale rails is what I say. Why not? What doesn't break us, or make us broke, will make us, if not stronger, then full of fun and laughs and maybe even a little more fashionable to boot.