With Christmas all around us we are inundated with news and information on buying gifts. But have we lost sight of what it all means?
In general people give what they would like to receive, or give what they would like to give, however, what is more appropriate is to give what the receiver would like to receive. As a typical man this is something I am often reminded of. That’s why it’s good to have a team of advisors of the opposite sex.
Think about it…
If you’re fishing and you want to catch some fish, what do you put on the end of the line? Obviously worms, or something like that. Something that the fish wants. There’s no point in piercing a twenty dollar bill to the end of the line, because the fish isn’t interested in money. Likewise a gift of a can of worms isn’t going to make that many people happy (unless of course they’re fishermen!) That’s why we give flowers or chocolate or wine etc. (As a man do you wonder how anyone could be overjoyed at receiving a bunch of flowers, and not be so happy to have a new car stereo, even though the stereo costs twenty times more!)
When it comes to the most valuable thing to give, it’s something that you don’t lose by giving it away. If you have money and give it away you don’t have it anymore. If you have a rare collector’s baseball from the 1956 World Series, and give it away you don’t have it anymore. But if you give away love and respect and friendship and good feelings and support, you still have them to give over and over. In fact, the more of that you give away, the more of it you get in return.
In life we tend to equate everything to a monetary value. Indeed that’s how our legal system can manage to equate hardship and suffering into a specific dollar amount that is supposed to compensate a “victim’s” problems. We equate riches to happiness. We believe that the sports car or the bigger home with a better view will complete our life’s dreams, but if you don’t have anyone to share that with, what’s the point. There will always be an emptiness.
Everything doesn’t have a monetary equivalent, and anything that is really worth something cannot be valued or even bought.
It’s nice to give gifts to people, and it’s nice to receive gifts, but it’s even nicer to be respected, loved and called a friend.
