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October 17th, 2012

10/17/2012

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Timothy Mallborn: The Invisible BoyTimothy Mallborn: The Invisible Boy by Matthew Lie-Paehlke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Who says the soul-sucking alienation of contemporary consumerism can't be fun? Those of us who live in a community that features a shopping mall at its cultural and social heart, will have no trouble identifying with Timothy Mallborn, the invisible hero of Matthew Lie-Paehlke's delightful story of a young boy who grows up in a mall - literally.

Timothy gets lost as a five year old lad, and finds meaning, art, and even love as he wanders from store to store over twenty-plus years. In his world you're invisible unless you're buying something. Who hasn't had that feeling on a busy Saturday during a holiday sale? Yet despite having been abandoned by his parents and living a lonely life surrounded by thousands of shoppers, young Timothy finds a way to connect with his own humanity and the spirits of the people all around him.

It's theatre of the absurd, funny and touching, and I couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading more from this imaginative writer.

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Post-Thanksgiving Mania. When indifference and greed overcome caring and compassion.

11/28/2011

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Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Shop till you drop. In a down economy, merchants and economists are welcoming the excitement around all the consumer activity in the wake of my favorite holiday. I think all that is fine. Stuff gets made, stuff gets sold, people buy stuff, trade stuff, it’s the major engine of our economy and without it, we wouldn’t be able to function as a society.

Then there’s the other part of the story. A man in West Virginia collapses at a Target store and people step over him to get at their Black Friday bargains. He dies. A woman at a Walmart in California pepper-sprays fellow shoppers to clear a path to the Xbox console she wants to buy.

Yes, you have to allow for human frailty or mental illness or whatever. At the same time, these cases point to the challenge a society faces when people don’t feel a human connection to their neighbors and colleagues. If our sense of caring isn’t stronger than our greed or indifference, the simian part of our brain becomes dominant and we do shameful things.

This isn’t a political problem. It’s a human problem.

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    Author

    Have you read any of the Civitas Rising series? Please share your thoughts about the Great Change, the impact of technology on our lives, healthcare, the role of government, and anything else the books got you thinking about.

    Thanks!

    Robert.

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