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The best gifts.
Wonder_Hippie
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I felt like making a happy thread where we talk about happy things. The premise is simple: just talk about the best gifts you've given or received or heard of or whatever. Gift doesn't necessarily imply something physical, so acts of service or kindness or generosity are definitely welcome discussion. Really, anything that you perceived as a gift is an appreciated contribution.
So let's talk.
I sincerely don't know what the best or most meaningful gift I've ever received is. It's not a very frequent practice in my family at any time of the year, and the gifts are usually just t-shirts and socks, so I don't really have a very good example. I suppose I never really learned how to give gifts, either. I don't like getting them because I don't know how to respond, and I don't like giving them because I'm always afraid it's a bad gift.
So give me some ideas. Tell me your stories.
So let's talk.
I sincerely don't know what the best or most meaningful gift I've ever received is. It's not a very frequent practice in my family at any time of the year, and the gifts are usually just t-shirts and socks, so I don't really have a very good example. I suppose I never really learned how to give gifts, either. I don't like getting them because I don't know how to respond, and I don't like giving them because I'm always afraid it's a bad gift.
So give me some ideas. Tell me your stories.
Wonder_Hippie on
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The best gift I've ever given was while traveling between college campuses in the northeast I hit it off with a girl named Sara. She was a freshman who'd signed on as undeclared, but harbored a desire to make her way into the fine arts program but didn't feel up to it. The happenstance of my arrival, and the escalation of our relationship from strangers to friends to something-more, left my final day living as a vagrant on that campus coinciding with her birthday. I repackaged and wrapped up my Waco tablet I'd been keeping with me for my own artistic pursuits, and gifted that to her. She was overjoyed and got right on it. As of this year, she's transferred into the fine arts program.
She made me install the 'Graffiti' application on Facebook so that she could leave thank-yous. It's sort of a shame that I'm no longer in contact with either of these people, but ... meh. Those are my best gifts-received and gift-given. The things Amanda gave me were things that no one else could and that spoke to her knowledge of my character and what I earnestly wanted -- the thing I gave Sara was something she wanted, that spoke to my confidence in her as an artist (and consequently emboldened her), and was valuable for being fairly expensive when she didn't have a method to making that purchase herself.
it is a lovely white gold chain and the pendant is an emerald with a small diamond. while really nice as is, it is particularly great as he knows it is exactly what i would want as the bits of my engagement ring (which we can't afford 'cos it would cost about £500). It was just really sweet and thoughtful.
When my parents were about my age (at the time), they had just had their second child (me), and were in the last year of their PhDs, and had no money, and were starting to look for jobs, and were thinking about having to move soon, and were feeling a bit overwhelmed. My dad's parents, out of the blue, said they wanted to help, so they gave my parents a pretty sizable amount of money, enough to buy a van (hey, it was the 70s).
My mom had always felt that, without that gift, she has no idea how that year would have worked out, and was always very thankful for it, and, because it came at about the same time I was born, she always associated that gift with me. So, when my wife and I found ourselves scratching our heads, trying to figure out a way to afford a car, mom felt no hesitation.
In retrospect, it's pretty clear that, without that gift, we'd be in pretty dire straits. Money's been tight since that summer, and my own car isn't the most reliable (it pretty much didn't run from January to May of this year). We don't have any kids of our own, but maybe someday. If we do, well, I just hope we find ourselves well off enough to help them out the way we were helped.
but i do remember acting this way when i got a dreamcast back in 2001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU
Firstly, a good set of collared dumbells and plates from my parents, last year. Got heaps of use out of them.
Secondly, a brilliant op-shop brown velvet jacket, that I wear frequently (in fact probably too frequently, people have commented that whenever they see me at a gig I'm in that jacket). That one also had a really nice gift-giving moment to go with it, as I was depressed as hell on my birthday for shitty angsty young man reasons and some of my uni friends came up to me in the cafe where I was moping and presented it, totally unexpected.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
Well, I have a friend who really liked the Naruto manga. There was one story arc in particular that was sort of an elongated flash back of one of his favorite characters. The english manga was way far away from this arc at the time, and I think probably still is. So, I got fan scanlations of the whole arc and edited out any sort of obtrusive logos they might have tacked on. Then, I made a pdf of all the images, editing the two page spread images and putting blank pages at the right spots between chapters to make sure the two page spreads ended up being paired correctly. Then, I took it all down to kinkos, and got it printed out and bound. The images were much larger, and of much better quality and on much nicer paper than how it would be when it got printed eventually. He liked it a ton, also cool because it's kind of a one-of-a-kind gift.
tl;dr, I printed the favorite story arc of one of my friends favorites mangas out in kinkos in high quality and large size and assembled it into a book.
I don't think it says that you're utilitarian and boring. I'm not wholly a determinist, but I'll lean on it for a lot of things, and I'll lean on it here. The best gifts vary from person to person and by time and place and it's all externalities and it's all stuff inside of us too. I don't think there's any greater scheme to it. The best gifts are precise and pinpointed, multifaceted and fantastic; they're just what we need, and simultaneously more than what we expected.
But ... we don't usually determine those things yourselves. Maybe your life set you up to be in the position to best-remember and most-fondly-recall "boring and utilitarian" gifts, but was there even ever an opportunity when a gift could have outpaced those on sentimental effect?
Socks
Shoes
Undershirt
Shirt
Underwear
Pants
Jacket
I was proud of the entire construction. He loved it.