2003-12-31 | 1:32 p.m.
ACT I - The Spirit of Receiving

(Creepy Louise enters stage left, scans the room with her eyes and then slowly steps onto her soapbox)

One of the aspects of the whole xmas gift giving that no one seems to address but that really bothers me is this one feeling. The feeling that nobody really gets who you are. It goes beyond your Mom or grandma buying you a silly Xmas sweater or putting the little egg cartons of nude hosiery in your stocking ( Yeah! I am 33 and still have a stocking so what of it!). Its at the level where even some of my closest friends say "You are impossible to buy for!" And then they proceed to give me the most generic and ridiculous gifts. The kind of gifts that should be filed under "For Female Age 25-35 WHO IS A COMPLETE STRANGER". Its kind of like when parents buy the new guy in your life the flashlight set. My best friend Mark now owns 7 mag lights. But hey! YA NEVER KNOW!One for every room in the house and one for the car.

I assume everyone has felt this way at one point or another in their lives. And while it is no ones job to be a mind reader and get that one exact thing. It is however your responsibility to listen to the people you care about and pick up on the little things that interest them. I mean c'mon! we are a consumerist society! At least once in the week each person mentions a desired thing they would like to purchase for themselves.

Well anyway, I had kind of one of those xmas this year. I actually didn't get hardly any gifts at all. It was weird. And I secretly was really down about it. Even several of my really good friends forgot about me.

But to end this all on a good note. I went to see another good friend today and we had been waiting to find a moment to just sit down and do the whole wrapped present exchange and out of the blue. She gave me 3 beautiful gifts. And they weren't anything I expected but they were exactly what I would like. And suddenly I felt as if at least one person was listening. At least one person had a clue about who I really was. And suddenly it all seemed better. Its funny but it only took one person to change it around for me.

I know it sounds stupid to write about the spirit of receiving when xmas is about the spirit of giving. But at what point is a gift just a hollow gesture of exchanging money. Why don't we all just stand in a circle and pass a $20 bill around while we say nice things about each other.

Well never mind that actually sounds like performance art. Or an exercise in team work that you use as a tool in one of those self help seminars.

But I think I am on the right track.

If in doubt about a present. Write a nice card and give them money! And if you think that sounds too impersonal then you better analyze your relationship with this person.

(creepy louise steps down off of her soapbox and exits stage left)

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