Simple Gifts: The Good

Recently inspired by Defective Yeti's inspiration, I have been thinking about gifts: The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I begin with The Good:

Since my teenage years, I have tried to be thoughtful when giving gifts and I truly do believe "it is the thought that counts." That is not to be taken as, any gift is a good gift, simply it seems better to use your noodle than to wrap up brass candlesticks because you think they are nice. Rather, a little thought goes a long way.

This was a hard lesson learned when I was a 14-year-old band geek who did not understand why my mom insisted on buying crates and crates of citrus fruit every year for our yearly uniform fundraiser. She would then divvy the fruit into baskets and deliver them to all the old people she knew. It was horribly time consuming and I hated every part of being her helper, from filling out the sales forms to tying cellophane around those damn baskets.

Finally, it became all I could take and upon the thought this tedious task was keeping me from my homework, I asked, "Why do you do this every year?! Why can't you just buy normal gifts like scented candles?! Fruit is stupid and this sucks."

My mother looked at me and sighed while shaking her head with the explanation, "The people we make these baskets for are on fixed incomes and can not afford to buy produce in the winter. I choose this as a gift in order to help them get vitamins in their diet."

I was silent. From then on I have tried to put a little more thought into the true meaning of the word "Gift".