pointless pesents

“I hate this holiday bullshit.”

...I've said that at least once a day since Black Friday. I love hanging out with family and friends. I love touching bases with acquaintances that I only see twice a year. I hate… I hate presents. Take presents out of the holiday and shit would be perfect.

Every time I ask people what they want for Christmas I get smacked with, “I dunno.” Sadly, I can’t complain about people being stupid. I can’t rant about the ease of blurting out ideas. I can’t reply with, “If you don’t fucking know then how the fuck am I suppose to know?” I can’t because I, too, have used the lame “I dunno” response.

Not knowing what I want is a symptom of this self-gratifying society that I live in. As a country we do not know what we want because we already have what we want, and if we don’t have what we want then we go out and buy it. I should moderate that statement by means of a “within reason” disclaimer. If I want a cd or dvd I buy it. If I want new clothes I buy them. If I want a concubine who plays solid defense in ESPN NBA Basketball and who is cloned from Milla Jovovich… well, that’s not exactly reasonable or realistic. We are a self-spoiled country of consumers. I am not condemning, but I am complaining (a little). Buying what I want when I want (within reason) is great, but it comes back to bight me in the ass during the holidays.

Seriously, let’s put holiday gifts in perspective. In general, we are talking about the giving and receiving of wants not needs. My primary priorities are my needs and, thankfully, my needs --water, food, shelter, and clothing-- are covered. My secondary priorities include car, phone, general furnishings, and the like. These too are covered, leaving me with bottom tier priorities and I’ve come to realize that all of my bottom tier priorities are junk.

I look at my wish list and it’s all junk. The Rambo Trilogy, The Collected Stories of Rudyard Kipling, The Ring, Heart’s self-titled album (yeah, the one with What About Love and These Dreams), and the new RZA album. It’s all junk. I don’t need it and to be honest I’m not even sure if I want the crap, yet I am compelled to compile a list of junk that I am ambivalent toward because it’s better than getting junk that pisses me off.

I look at the presents I’m giving and, once again, it’s all junk. I’m giving my bro a candle set, a retro Transformer key chain, and an assortment of cds. I’m giving my sis two sets of foam nunchacku (one for her and one for her husband), some decorative fish figurines, and a bunch of cds (some she asked for, some she didn’t). I’m getting Tim the newly released live Led Zeppelin dvd. Other assorted gifts I’m giving include a buttload of toys, a carved wooden statue, more candles, several movies, a fake jade plant, a videogame, a set of measuring cups, cookies, and candy. It’s all junk! It’s all crap that will be forgotten about by December 26. The lone exception being the measuring cups, which my mom will really use.

It’s all junk. So why do I stress out emotionally and financially over junk? Because societal norms dictate that I must. Well societal norms can go fuck themselves; I’m done with pointless gift giving and pointless gift receiving. I’m relieving stress from myself and everybody else around me so that I can truly enjoy friends and family. It may be too late to start this year, but come next year I’m changing my philosophy. I’ll focus my gift resources on the friends and family who need them. Hopefully, my financial situation will remain stable through next year that I will be able to adamantly decline any junk gifts given to me.
...and so it was written, shenry at 12/23/2003 01:30:00 PM.
...and so it was appended with .