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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Proof of Purchase


Receipts ~ what good are these crumpled itemized bits of paper 
cluttering pockets, purses and dashboards, filling trash bins with shopping history?

Some long, some short, some barely legible.
Dates, times, taxes, maybe even the name of the clerk.
Sometimes a little happy face and a thank you.

But really ~ what good are they?
Made of paper ~ trees have fallen for their very existence.
Jobs were created from all that chopping and paper making.

Pristine and coiled, glossy and white
ready to serve a chugging, whirring machine
spitting out a proof of purchase ~ a detailed shopping reminder

What I do know is this ~ 
when the number of receipts in my purse exceeds the dollar bills that I started out with, it’s time to leave the store and go home.

(In the case of plastic, attention to detail is the order of the day.)

“We need proof in our society.”
~ Shirley MacLaine

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