It's The Thought That Counts (Not!)

What is it with the holidays? Whether it's Father's Day or Christmas or a birthday...it's so full of the pressure to get the right gift.

I was having coffee with my neighbor and she was suggesting that we all make something as a gift for Christmas. You know, like a box made out of popsicle sticks or a batch of fudge.

Something from the heart.

Yeah, right!

Scenario: Christmas morning. Beautiful (too big, too expensive) tree with Grandma's childhood ornament. Tinsel (gotta have tinsel...) Presents under the tree and the smell of bacon and pancakes and fresh coffee waiting in your mind for the presents to be opened before it actually wafts in from the kitchen. Waking up Daddy.

Anyway...open up the little box with the cute ribbon that has got to be the watch you have been coveting. But NOOO! It's a seashell from the beach that Morris found and then, in the spirit of "let's make gifts for Christmas", decided to put in a box...just for you!

"Oh, Morris it's so lovely...just what I wanted. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome Dad. Do you really like it?"

"Are you kidding? I love it!"

Are you kidding? A seashell? After all of the stuff I bought him over the years. Bikes and guitars and movie money and clothes (ok, he hated the clothes but he needed socks) he gives me a lousy seashell? Jeez!

But it is the thought that counts. I'll get over it. I'll look at it years from now and think of his generosity of spirit. But it'll take years. Right now I would much rather have that book David Brooks wrote about by Malcolm Gladwell. How successful people are affected by the luck of their circumstance more than by their talents.

Or, as Dennis Leary would say, "Merry @#$%ing Christmas...!"