MEDIUM RARE
The saying “Give ‘til it hurts” applies not to your friends but the objects of your charity. Funny, though, churchmen have not been using that phrase, not even in their sermons, possibly because they do not want to emphasize that last word of five letters.
Gifting, in fact, should be a pleasure – when it comes to people you like. As another saying goes, “A friend is someone who likes you,” ergo someone you like in turn.
For a friend we look for an appropriate gift, deciding what may or may not be suitable, wonderful, marvelous, an exciting or pleasurable surprise. To find that gift we are willing to endure the agonies of EDSA, home to at least half a dozen shopping malls.
In the Philippines, as everyone with an IQ of 50 and above knows, the mall is all. Park, temple, resort, whatever, thanks to Henry Sy, the father of the mall whose experiment with SM North EDSA became such a hit that all other malls have been, since then, patterned after it.
To the mall we go, to buy necessities for ourselves and gifts for others, such as family, friends, strangers like visiting firemen and tourists. If you cannot find something appropriate, is the fault yours or the mall’s, or your finicky friend’s? When my friend E asked a painful question, “At our age, do we still need to play Kris Kringle?” nobody dared or wanted to counter with a reply.
Our malls are a shining testament to our way of life. They welcome everyone of any social and economic class, including those with no intention of buying. In the US, Boxing Day, which falls on Dec. 26, allows the recipient of a gift to exchange that gift for something more to his or her liking, as long as the label and tags are intact.
With the frenzy of the gift-giving season’s arrival, I envy people who are able to turn their gifts into works of art with wrapping paper, ribbons, and cellophane tape. In the same breath, I remember my grandmother – the first “professional” recyclist – who kept every piece of gift-wrapping paper, every twirl of silk ribbon because, to her they were a joy to touch and remember her loved ones by.