what is it about the mall?

I'm an old mall rat. When I was a kid, the mall was absolutely the place to be. Back in the 80's...

I think that back then, the mall seemed like a new idea. I mean, in the Hudson Valley, where I grew up, about an hour north of "The City", there was a mall, but all the shopping was done elsewhere, and the mall was a rare trip--that was the late 70's. But in the early eighties, there was a boom in our area. The Poughkeepsie Galleria!!!

This was the biggest, most fancy mall in the area. It was new, posh, and had great spots for skateboarding. as a 10-12 year old, I marveled at it's newness, smoothness, coolness, cleanness, bigness, brightness... It soothed something in me, each time I walked in it with my parents...

At 12, there was a convergence of general trends in my life that brought me deeper into the world of the mall. I got a skateboard and enjoyed learning how to speed around on it in my neighborhood. Little did I know that there was an entire world built around a culture of punk rock and skateboarding, waiting for me in the back halls and parking lots of the Mall...

during the next four years, I was lost to the culture of the mall. I spent friday through sunday in the mall culture, importing it into my room, with skateboarding, punk rock, pop culture... Was it the culture of the mall? I guess the mall is the hub of that community... It was our church. The place where we were. The gathering. the community center.

We ate together, there. We stayed at the house of the kids who lived in the neighborhoods there... It offered shelter, food (we lived off freebies from friends who risked their jobs to sneak to us in the back halls), and friendship.

Oh man, I remember the mystery of the ARCADE. I rarely had money to play. I had little money to do most of the things that the older, cooler people were so expert at...
Don Carey, Mike, Mike, Mike, Winnie, Ant--the Best Cycle Skate Demo Team. They were the future professional skateboarders who modeled life to us in the mall. They were all from this one High School in Poughkeepsie (i don't remember the name, but we used to skate there all the time--it had an overhung entry with metal-edged steps for grinding). They were the epitome...

by the time I was 16, I had lost my soul to that culture. It drugged me and dragged me into all kinds of deviant behavior. I was dead. I knew it...

by the time I was 17, I understood. I had been dead, and was now alive in Christ. I lost the mall and all the glitz and the false glamour, and went on a hippie-style Jesus freak trip... I'm kinda still on it... more and more, really...
I focused on Guitar and song, poetry and conversation... The Word and the Deed, producing in me words and deeds in kind.

Now I'm 32. And I'm puzzling over my "new mall". there's this place I love to go, lately, and i don't think it's good for me. It's big, shiny, new, safe, smooth, with a food court, stores (o how i love to just go and buy things there, no matter how overpriced they may seem)... the people there are b.e.a.yootiful! Not a stinker in the bunch. They are interesting, cool, well-dressed, happy, smart, friendly... It is a relaxing, druglike, place to be...

Even better, I get to enjoy live music--my favorite songs of all--each time I go there. There is also an intellectual market there that rivals the discussions of Rollins and who's playing at CBGB... I don't agree with all I hear in the class/conference, but I love sitting without my kids pulling on me (i spent this morning playing with seth. I'm watching sesame street, right now).

There's free coffee! The last bastion of legalized drug use--free! I get so high, buy food, books, music, hear people affirm my beliefs/attempt to challenge my thinking, pose for the camera, and "voila"! I'm ready for monday!

I really like my new mall. I like it a lot. I am disturbed a little about how much i like it.

I haven't gone there for a while, since i realized that this was no mall, but rather an attempt to build a community. i already have a community. the community they are building around their mall seems to be enslaving them. a lot of what they do seems to be about the mall, and enlarging its support... probly not, but it seems that way to me...

it's easy to percieve it this way when the community around me is built solely on love, family, belonging, grace, full-out slavery to God, love, and love. I am spoiled. ruined to the mall...

i still like smooth things... and things that are made of smooth marble... that are cool to the skin... that you slide along.

and i still like skateboarding, but my ankle, foot, knee, hip... they don't so much...