You are what you purchase

So one of the "major issues" I said is confronting the church and culture is consumerism. Nothing too novel there, but thinking about consumerism has also got me thinking about my new job as a bank teller. No, I'm not going to launch into a diatribe about the ills of money or anything like that, just an observation.

More and more, people seem to be characterized by numbers and statistical information about how they behave. The best example I can think of are the financial statements people receive from their banks or credit cards. And as much as I would like to deny the value of these statements, I cannot help but feel they speak volumes about people. Take for instance the following:

Date Transaction Description Amount
09/01 POS Target T0776 Pasadena CA -42.32
09/02 ATM withdrawal Pasadena CA -40.00
09/02 Trader Joe's #179 Pasadena CA -33.48
09/03 Deposit 200.00
09/04 Check #789: Rent -750.00

From these five meager transactions, anyone can gauge something about our life in Pasadena. You would know at least one or more specific places where we were on specific dates, as well as general shopping trends. Over time, such records would also indicate larger patterns of behavior. So much so that it would not be impossible to figure out - say after six months - what are the general patterns of our lifestyle: grocery shopping on Saturdays, rent payment at the first of the month, favorite stores, impulse buys or weakness areas, etc.

Again, I have nothing important to say on this. I just wanted everyone to know (most importantly family) that from now on I will not be emailing, writing or calling. I will simply make a copy of my bank statements and mail them to you at the end of the month. I'll leave the deducing and generalizing up to you, but feel free to call when you see transactions occurring in Thailand or purchases from Babies 'R Us.

happily,

354763 (aka Wes Kendall's bank number)

p.s. - just kidding about the bank number, I'm not that out of it.