{"id":522,"date":"2009-06-20T10:32:52","date_gmt":"2009-06-20T17:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/?p=522"},"modified":"2009-06-20T12:01:50","modified_gmt":"2009-06-20T19:01:50","slug":"the-truth-about-gift-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/the-truth-about-gift-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Gift-Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"

When\u00a0people say “Don’t get me anything,” it’s best to pay no attention.\u00a0 They’ll\u00a0 say “I have everything I need,” but that doesn’t rule out wish fulfillment.\u00a0 And it helps if\u00a0we’re\u00a0mind readers about what they’d really<\/em> like, if only they’d say so.<\/p>\n

I’m going to a birthday party for a man who’s 85 years old today.\u00a0 Getting a gift for him\u00a0takes more than a little\u00a0 thought.\u00a0 After we’ve lived a certain number of years, most of us feel\u00a0we own enough things.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0we’ve started\u00a0giving things away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s much easier to shop for younger people.\u00a0 They really do need<\/em> things and then they want<\/em> so many things, there’s a world of gadgets they feel they can’t live without.<\/p>\n

My birthday friend\u00a0says “Don’t get me anything.\u00a0 I don’t need a thing.”\u00a0 But I think when someone says that, he’d still like\u00a0to be surprised with a\u00a0little something.\u00a0 So I’m paying no attention\u00a0 and giving him a gift anyway.\u00a0 Sounds simple enough – but it’s not, because he\u00a0really does have everything he wants and duplicates of everything he needs.<\/p>\n

Over these past few birthdays I’ve about used up every creative notion about\u00a0gifts for him.\u00a0 Someone suggested “a gift of time” and last year I spent an afternoon with him over\u00a0coffee and sweets I baked myself.\u00a0 But this year’s\u00a0a big number\u00a0with a big party and I don’t\u00a0want to arrive\u00a0empty-handed.<\/p>\n

I finally settled on the one thing\u00a0that he uses every day – music.\u00a0 He plays music at the top volume of his Bose extra-special CD player that his daughter insisted he buy.\u00a0 So I got him a CD.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh – and one of those cushioned “kitchen slice” rugs to put in front of the stove.\u00a0 He didn’t say he needs one, but I think he does.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to his grandson, \u00a0who got him a DVD\u00a0player and installed it,\u00a0I’ve got a\u00a0head start on\u00a0gift ideas for Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00d3<\/span><\/span> Anita Garner 2009<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When\u00a0people say “Don’t get me anything,” it’s best to pay no attention.\u00a0 They’ll\u00a0 say “I have everything I need,” but that doesn’t rule out wish fulfillment.\u00a0 And it helps if\u00a0we’re\u00a0mind readers about what they’d really like, if only they’d say so. I’m going to a birthday party for a man who’s 85 years old today.\u00a0 … Continue reading “The Truth About Gift-Giving”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[503,505,509,502,508,25,510,506,507,237,504],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-birthday","tag-birthday-party","tag-birthday-wishes","tag-bose","tag-cd","tag-dvd","tag-gift-giving","tag-kitchen-rug","tag-kitchen-slice-rug","tag-music","tag-senior-birthday"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Truth About Gift-Giving – Anita Garner | The Aging of Aquarius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/the-truth-about-gift-giving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Truth About Gift-Giving – Anita Garner | The Aging of Aquarius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When\u00a0people say “Don’t get me anything,” it’s best to pay no attention.\u00a0 They’ll\u00a0 say “I have everything I need,” but that doesn’t rule out wish fulfillment.\u00a0 And it helps if\u00a0we’re\u00a0mind readers about what they’d really like, if only they’d say so. 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