Birthday presents become more complicated the older you get
My dad once gave me a shocking piece of advice that I’ve always admired
Does anyone else think it’s odd that grown-ups keep having birthday presents? I appreciate that it’s a tradition and a way of telling someone how important they are. However, when you get past the age of… 30? You’re a fully, fully, fully-fledged adult.
I’m not saying I want to rip up the cultural rule book. I’m a massive fan of cake, candles and singing. However, I wonder if we all got together in some form of collective, we could agree on a way forward on gifts. We would have to agree together otherwise it’s not fair.
You can try and phase yourself out of gifts but it will creep back in. It always does. As I reflect on this, I’m starting to wonder whether it’s a pressure I put on myself to find something new.
Once you get to my age, all the gifts you would like you probably have already and all the things I might dream of will probably require a lottery win. This week is a key birthday as my wife comes from a birthday culture. In the past, I have been known to go to a large shopping centre and simply stand in the atrium and await God's inspiration.
Often, in the past, he’s delivered. However, recently I think even the almighty may be running out of ideas that fit my budget and also my time commitment.
My dad once gave me a shocking piece of advice that
I’ve always admired. He told me that if you get a piece of jewellery that’s expensive, yet wrong in design and size, you get heaps of points and praise for the thought. Then you return it to the store and forget about it. Long enough for the conversation to turn to, ‘whatever happened about that ring/necklace/bracelet’.
I’m sure that my dad never did that. It was father-son showboating that is to be adored on all levels.
Fortunately, this year God decided to carry the burden and gave me a great idea. It was different. It involved one of my wife’s favourite things. It was also going to deal with a long-running conversation.
It was a coffee art course. Order a latte coffee and you get that picture of a tree on top of the foam.
You order a flat white and it has a swan swimming in the steamed milk. Order a cappuccino and the barista has, by some kind of magic, painted a Buddha in the cap of the ‘cino’. I agree. I didn’t know the course even existed. However, God did and I’m, once again, in his debt.