Image via Wikipedia"Deadly Black Friday: One at Wal-Mart, Two at Toys 'R' Us"

As a disciple of the Church of Stop Shopping, a silver lining in these tragedies may be that some people wake-up to the ridiculousness of consumer frenzy.

But as evangelist for Meetup, I hope the take-away isn't "stay inside" or "avoid crowds" or "online is safer than offline" or "the real world is scary" or "don't cavort with strangers".

Overall, I hope people find meaning & purpose & collective joy outside of consumer activity.