It was Pennsylvania, snow outside, so before I was 10 years old. I got a pair of socks from some aunt and uncle in North Carolina. Yes, a pair of socks! I remember how stupid I thought this gift was, and quickly abandoned the socks to go on to the next present.
Such were my thoughts, as a young child, during a holiday that pleases me to this day. And it is an opportunity for me to understand the progression of my thinking over the years. Now, when I think back to the way I experienced that moment, I see how small my world was. I had no room for gratitude, not for a pair of socks.
As we boxed up our Christmas presents for the kids, a care package for a year marked by Covid-19 and isolation, I noticed my wife had bought everyone a pair of socks. "Oh, they're very special socks, Bombas, with inner arch support!" But I couldn’t help remembering my own reaction, more than 50 years ago.
We sent each a care package: blanket and socks to snuggle into, chocolates and a book to read, all hallmarks of our love, from a distance, across the country. It took us hours to wrap and properly box these wishes. We paid for shipping, from the manufacturer to our home in North Carolina, boxed them up, and now we pay shipping, again, to send the packages across the country. Our expression is more based in our intent, rather than the items sent. But this message will be lost on the younger ones.
Like the squirrel and the acorn, and Buddhism, there is more to human existence than just the here and now, and the way things be. Intention, learned first to be practiced and then learned to be observed, is a relatively unique human experience of life. Perhaps, this is part of my purpose? Perhaps this is part of every human’s purpose?
Intention implies choice, action, and consequence, not just as it relates to me, but also as it relates to others. So being human is across time and space: time, the delay between choice and consequence, and space, across people, places, and things.
As I got older, to receive a gift was to feel the choices, actions, and intentions of the giver, a compassion with the giver, the act of giving, rather than the pleasure of the gift itself. This is an example of how my perceptions have expanded to give me more options, and hence, more freedom of choice. I look forward to the day when my children receive intentions, instead of just socks ;-)
