Gift buying

Ah, Andy Williams. This is one of the few Christmas songs I think I could listen to ad nauseam and never get annoyed with it. I remember working on the mall and this was the song that I could hum along with and people would always wish me "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" and I'd smile back and say "Thanks". The holiday season always brought out the worst in people - pushing, shoving, rudeness to the cashiers, and I'd always feel the best approach was the be as nice as possible because they really didn't mean it. Its the Southern hospitality approach, right? Kill 'em with kindness?

People working around me have been in the shopping mode before work, after work, on their breaks. Scouting the Black Friday ads, I listen to the folks around me shopping for people and the most common lament is "Gosh, X person is soooooooo hard to buy for".

If you think about that, it should be turned around. X person is hard to buy for because they have been blessed with everything they need and want already (and blessed can be religious or not, take your own meaning), and its hard to come up with something to gift because they already have their needs met. We live in an unprecedented time in history - more people have full, rich lives than in any other century. Even the people who are poor today have more than poor people in any other time period.

Instead of thinking hard to buy for people are a lament, turn your thinking around to how happy you are to think about them so much this time of year, and the gift buying process will be much more pleasant. And for the people that do this, I thank them today, on behalf of the many cashiers, store clerks, and myself, who will have a much happier time shopping because of it.