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The Art of Gift-Giving: Choosing Meaning Over Material
In our fast-paced, materialistic world, the act of gift-giving has been reduced to a meaningless accounting task where the giver and receiver keep count of the value exchange. Transactional anxiety has developed, placing undue angst on the shoulders of all involved in the exchange. This bleak summation of the current gift-giving environment is one many can relate to, having experienced such exchanges at least once.
Let’s take a step back before I get all doom and gloom. I remember the joy of gifts as a child, that feeling of not knowing what you are going to get on Christmas morning, to gathering around the tree and opening your gifts one by one and the excitement and intrigue of this special time. Although as a child I thought it was the simplistic and most joyous time of the year as I got older those smiles and excitement that I saw on the faces of my family began to be pierced. I no longer only saw the small but the questions about receipts for returns or going to the shops in the following days to exchange the gifts for things that we find more favourable.
I began to see through the facade of gift-giving and had my eyes opened to the complex array of social emotions attached to this ritual.
The concern is that many have lost the art of gift-giving and are doomed to live in this cycle of angst…
