Pokemon Go, Walmart, and a Muttering

Last updated on: July 14, 2016 at 7:11 am by Anne Kennedy

Pokemon Go, Walmart, and a Muttering 2016-07-14T07:11:31-04:00 Anne Kennedy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Spent a significant portion of yesterday in the car, birthday shopping and shuttling people various places (feeling terminally middle class), and then another portion of the day with my headphones stuffed in my ears, unpacking boxes and listening first to Bleak House (36 Hours for the Win) and then to podcasts of people explaining the phenomenon of Pokemon Go.

My phone is slowly fizzling out, so there’s no way I’m downloading anything at all that isn’t a podcast or a book calculated to spur me on to greater and greater amounts of work. And also, it would be really evil of me to play or do anything that doesn’t include putting Stuff Away and Looking For Stuff.

The gentle, questioning voice of a millennial explained the appeal of Pokemon Go–the nostalgia of an entire generation bundled neatly into an App, the sensibleness of returning to the old Pokemon and leaving all the new fangled ones behind. A deeper millennial male (sorry, cis male) voice cut in to delight in what this single game is doing to the economy, how economic hardships are dissipating away like a mist as hundreds of previously home bound young people flock into shops and restaurants. Play Global, Buy Local, or something like that.

Marveled that all of this has blossomed overnight. Hadn’t heard of Pokemon Go last Saturday. By Tuesday evening I was banging into it everywhere on the Internet, and by Wednesday there were what felt like hundreds of podcasts to chose from to explain it to me. Cast about in the cloudy recesses of both sides of my consciousness for some word to explain this sudden proliferation of something that feels (but obviously isn’t) ex nihlo. Then the lilting feminine millennial spoke it–“Viral”. Like Zika, I thought, or more likely the flu. Too small to notice, and then suddenly a quarter of the population has died from it.

Wondered again, because that’s all I do now, at the impermanent nature of this age we’re living in. We can go anywhere, do anything, construct whatever we like and the thing that we build is Auto Zone. The landscape is littered with highways cutting through towns that look exactly the same. Comfort Inn and Suites and Denny’s if you’re on the low end. Holiday Inn and Starbucks if you’re willing to drive a little further. Every single town in “Merica” has a Strip. You leave the dull shell of the town, bereft of shops that would sell anything you want, and drive twenty minutes out to Walmart, as I did yesterday, to buy everything in the world. The boxes go up over night. The bright disorienting lights flicker. We all shuffle around with our big carts, sampling the economic magic of Chinese Kitchen Towels and flimsy dog crates made in Taiwan. In a hundred years there will be trees growing up through the cracks because these boxes will have been abandoned in favor of some other palette of color and cheeper lighting.

Wish beauty would go viral. Wish a new generation of humanity would catch the bug of the beautiful arrangement of buildings in harmony with the peculiarities of a landscape. Wish all the flickering lights, both from my phone and from the ceiling, would more truly resemble the warm glow of a candle that burns slowly down to its stub, and the stubs gathered and made into another candle. But wishing is a pretty useless activity. If Pokemon Go is the thing of the day, I should obediently download it and wander out into the town, joining myself to our common humanity.

Pip Pip

Previous Post

July 13, 2016

Stuff, It Feels So Solid But It's Not

Next Post

July 15, 2016 HuffPo Corrects the Pope

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Children in Conversation culture watch Daily Devotions Demotivations with Anne faith alone for the grandparents GAFCON In conversation with children In the News Kitchen Notes Lambeth Learning Notes Life Going On Men are Human Notes from Home Pictures Reading the Bible Saturday Links Sermons Signs of the Apocalypse The Bad Word Association The Prayer of Jonah Travel Notes Uncategorized Witless Wednesdays Work and the Christian

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the name "Elijah" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

God Saves God Provides The Lord is my God The Chosen One

Books by This Author Books by Anne Kennedy

See All Titles »