Gift Giving

Gift giving is always a dilemma for me.  Overall, I'd say that I'm a generous person.  But, I'm also always trying to be more aware of my environment - both the physical and political.  Obviously, consumption harms the physical environment in ways to numerous to count but what message does it send out there in other ways?  If we all quit buying just for the sake of buying, would the world be a better place?  I'm not sure but I decided a couple of years ago to step off the holiday gift giving merry-go-round and I have to tell you that I feel like a much better person for doing so. 

At the holidays, instead of giving a gift, we make a charitable donation in the names of our closest loved ones and that's it.  We really don't do more than that - even when we want to and even when someone has given us a gift.  Sometimes it is hard but we are sure to send them a sincere thank you card and hope that's enough for them.  Eventually, we've found, they'll stop buying us things and, sometimes, even reciprocate in kind by making a donation to the Oregon Humane Society or the Oregon Food Bank in our names.  Really, that's the best gift we could receive anyway.

Like everyone else we know, we have more than enough things and we have the resources to acquire any things that we truly want or need.  I tend to be a perfectionist so gift shopping was always about finding just the right thing for each person.  I would spend a lot of time thinking and searching.  Often, that also meant spending more money then I maybe should have.  Inevitably, I'd present them with the perfect gift only to be given an indifferent shrug and no note of thanks.  All that effort, time and money would feel wasted and I'd exit the holiday season feeling more deflated than fulfilled.  With my new philosophy, I have more time to spend with Onya and Ty doing the fun things that we enjoy - really, isn't that what the holidays, and the whole year really, should be about??