Exclamation Points

 FREE BATH MAT WHEN YOU SPEND $200

--so reads the home goods advertisement sent to my email. 

Wait. Do they really think a bath mat will motivate me to spend $200. 

Wait. How much are bath mats these days? Maybe they're more than I thought.

We live amidst increased commerce and with increased commerce, is greater competition and increased attention needed to get us to buy. My son-in-law specializes in advertisement and the things he does for market attention. He recently directed a film short that took a thousand lemons. It got attention. Lots of it. 

A former student has written a beautiful, timely, poignant book. After telling her my book club will be reading it in July, she offers her special: I'm offering a book club interview if the entire book club buys the book. I let her know that there are only five members...I haven't heard back...

We live amidst increased and free availability of the written word. I love to read good writing. I am subscribed to several publications: War House and at least a dozen good writers on Substack. Each morning, my email window is pelted with so much good writing, it feels like a storm. I can't read fast enough. Just today, I read about a dedicated Army member who's overcome depression induced by a one year stint in Iraq. I read the heartfelt story of a trans woman who just wants to do her job well as a member of the Army's Old Guard. I loved reading the sweet and simple observations of a bookstore owner in England. 

 My thoughts are provoked, my compassion extended, my joy is tickled. But it's already 8:39 a.m. and my to-do's are hours long before I meet a friend for lunch. 

Yesterday's snail mail was deluged with advertisements too. Only, they were offers for a free meal as the ultimate enticement...or so they thought. 

The first: 

A free dinner at Brick Oven Pizza. Wow. But why do they want to give me a free dinner?!?

They want me to sign up for regenerative or  pain therapy!

Since Tony and I have reached our sixties, this kind of advertisement--hearing aids, estate planning, social security guidance--are frighteningly abundant.

But the next "invitation" for a free dinner is hardly enticing enough:

Two exclamation points without a trace of the truth unless special attention is given to the return address on the invite:

Hardly a free dinner I'm anxious to attend!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of exclamation points...