Shopping
I did my Christmas shopping yesterday within the space of a few hours...just long enough so that it was still, on the whole, an enjoyable experience.
However, I was struck by an observation that I made over and over again while I was at the mall. I kept hearing people say something like "I need to the find the perfect gift" or "Oh! It's perfect!"
It occurred to me ask: Is there such a thing, the perfect gift? Yes and no; it exists but we can't give it. Granted, we can find really good gifts if we put some thought into it. But if we could actually give the perfect gift, there would be no need to give any other.
So if you take a step back from the culture during the month of December you might look either horrified at the materialism or bemused at the folly.
I take the latter view. Christmas is ultimate material holiday and has been from its beginning. I mean, it celebrates the manifestation (materialization, if you will) of God in human form. From the Christian perspective, God has given humanity a gift. And this is where the amusing human folly comes in.
Why do we go on these endless hours-long searches in malls and stores for the perfect gift? Oh yes, I suppose originally trying to imitate the gift-giving God; today one might say we try an oversompensate in order to make ourselves appear better in our gift-giving abilities in order to forget about the first Christmas gift. So we go about in this mad rush to find ever more expensive and unique gifts in the hopes that that one might be the perfect gift.
The thing is, we can never find that perfect gift for anyone. It's already been given; and we've had it for centuries.
However, I was struck by an observation that I made over and over again while I was at the mall. I kept hearing people say something like "I need to the find the perfect gift" or "Oh! It's perfect!"
It occurred to me ask: Is there such a thing, the perfect gift? Yes and no; it exists but we can't give it. Granted, we can find really good gifts if we put some thought into it. But if we could actually give the perfect gift, there would be no need to give any other.
So if you take a step back from the culture during the month of December you might look either horrified at the materialism or bemused at the folly.
I take the latter view. Christmas is ultimate material holiday and has been from its beginning. I mean, it celebrates the manifestation (materialization, if you will) of God in human form. From the Christian perspective, God has given humanity a gift. And this is where the amusing human folly comes in.
Why do we go on these endless hours-long searches in malls and stores for the perfect gift? Oh yes, I suppose originally trying to imitate the gift-giving God; today one might say we try an oversompensate in order to make ourselves appear better in our gift-giving abilities in order to forget about the first Christmas gift. So we go about in this mad rush to find ever more expensive and unique gifts in the hopes that that one might be the perfect gift.
The thing is, we can never find that perfect gift for anyone. It's already been given; and we've had it for centuries.
Labels: Pop Culture
posted by Chris at 9:56 AM
2 Comments:
I never understood why the big deal about shopping days and holiday shopping myself. I guess I don't take gift giving that seriously. Getting gifts is a nice, thoughtful gesture, but I've actually come to an age where a good card is really appreciated. I'd rather know someone was thinking about me over the holidays than that they felt like they had to get me a gift.
I always feel obligated to get people gifts, because you come across people who haven't brought gifts but will then be offended that they haven't received one from you. I know, who are those people.
I'm there with you on the card, but surprises are always nice.
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