Oh, Costco

You are larger than life

60 cans for the price of 1

Carts the size of Subarus filled to feed a family of 12

36 pairs of cotton underwear next to crates of crayons with 14,578 colors

Papier-mâché streamers long enough to build a city

and buckets of confetti alongside a 98" tv

Creatine supplements, protein shakes and barbell plates for an indestructible army

You never cease to amaze me, oh Costco, with your many and varied mercantile goods for sale

Yet with all the nation-states, fantasies, and cravings you feed, it's all too easy to pass judgment

to arrive at, say conclusions of the profligate

Excess is no doubt a slippery lever in global crises, on which we all have a hand

Or is ignorance the greater evil?

What if excess leads to mutual aid?

What if all the crayons color me happy?

What if real financial savings is the clincher in a high-stakes game for low-income households?

What if plasma tv's and high-speed blenders are veritable symbols of success for the immigrant mother who came from nothing?

What if speeches on post-capitalism and conspicuous consumption make us the dilettante?

Is there not some truth to the Zen koan, "If you find the Buddha, kill him."

So I thank you, oh Costco, for your bulk-sized, hyperbolic reminders of the risks of intellectual pretense and performative elitism

May we all be free of rigidity in our thinking, boutique or thifty, Michelin-starred or hot dogs for $1.50

May we all be happy, may we all be free.