What do you do with them?

The holidays have passed a little while ago. I’m quite positive everyone has received some gifts they’re not really happy about. I know I have.

Now, in the case of gifts you got from people you don’t really give a damn about it’s very easy to get rid of them. There’s no guilt. You don’t really care if they come to you and ask what you’ve done with them. It’s quite easy to come up with a stupid excuse (even something like “the dog ate it”). You couldn’t care less whether they believe you or not or whether they’re hurt or not. It’s not very nice, but we all have “friends” we’re not really fond of.

What happens though in the case of family, friends who are really dear to you. They maybe couldn’t afford anything better or just had a bad day when they picked up your gift.

Before we go any further here’s what you should absolutely not do. Or at least put up in place a system that will keep you from embarassing yourseld. I have a friend of mine who had the bad habbit of passing to others gifts he didn’t want. It all went just fine until one day when he gave a gift to the person he got it from. I can’t even tell you the embarassement he went through. The guy didn’t talk to him for about a month.

What I like to do is use the gift (whatever that involves) for a while so that the person I got it from is happy. Then, after a while I phase it out, until I stop using it completely.

I know some of you might think that it’s always better to tell the truth. I am of the same opinion. However, there’s plenty of situations when telling a small lie really doesn’t hurt anybody. And I believe this is one of those situations.

I learned this on my own when I was about 10-11 years old. My parents and I were visiting my aunt. She had just been on a vacation out of the country visiting some friends. It had been quite a huge financial effort for her. However, she brought everybody little gifts. Mine was a clipboard. On previous occasions when we were there, she saw that I like to organize things. So, she thought I might really like a clipboard. And I did. I wanted to have a clipboard so badly, that I had my parents buy me one. The problem was that the one I had was more than a clipboard. It was more like a folder-clipboard. So when my aunt gave me the one she had bought, instead of appreciating her good will, I started bragging about mine and how it was much better than hers. To this day I can’t forget her face.

Of course I was just a kid and I didn’t know any better. Unfortunately though, I’ve seen grown ups do the same thing. This kind of honesty it’s not worth it. It only hurts our loved ones for no good reason.

Yesterday, as I was walking home (yes, I do walk) I saw a sign offering a $50 reward for a lost cat. It described the cat and said that it got lost on New Year’s Eve.

The first thing that came to my mind was how nice it would be to find the cat and take it back to its owners without taking the money. How happy I would have made them.

But I couldn’t help it think of whether I would have taken the money provided my financial situation was a little different. I’m not rich (as a matter of fact I’m quite far from being rich). I am financially comfortable for my present living standards. Not long ago, though, I was struggling and struggling hard. So I ask myself: would have I taken the money back then? Although I can’t really give a definite answer, it’s very possible that I might have.

Had I found the cat, brought it back to its owners and not taken the money, they most likely would think of me as a real nice person. Little would they know that about half a year ago I might have taken their money.

Without being a religious person (with the going to church and all that stuff) I do believe in God and the bible. I actually pride myself in knowing a lot more than the “religious” people about what the bible says. And there’s a particualr story in there that applies to me.

On one of their days at the temple, Jesus and his disciples saw an old, really poor lady giving a penny to the temple. Needless to say Jesus used this as an example to teach his disciples yet another lesson. That old woman’s one penny donation was worth a billion times more than a rich man’s any amount. Why? Simply because she proves so much love (in this case for God and his temple) that she wants to contribute to it even if that means her getting herself into even more financial hardship. While any rich person, normally, gives away a surpluss, something they have extra and can very well live without, that poor old woman shared out of her kindness and love for God something she already had very little of.

So how does this apply to me? I wonder if I am any better than the rich people Jesus was referring to. Yes, today I wouldn’t take the 50 bucks, but that’s only because I can do without it. It’s not a significant amount for me anymore.

The only thing that makes me feel better is that I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who, even though they wouldn’t need the $50, they might have taken it.

On the other hand I keep asking myself what determined the owners of the cat decide upon the amount of “fifty”. Some might say it’s a decent amount while others might think it’s actually not enough. As far as I could see so far, most pet owners who love their pets, are usually willing to spend a lot more in such a situation.

But who am I to judge? Those guys are probably in an even worse financial situation than I was half a year ago. And yet, out of love for their lost cat, they’re willing to give away $50 to those who brought it back home. Maybe a kid misses the cat. I preffer to look at it this way.

I really hope they’ll find their cat.