Common to service, sacrifice, family, sexuality, community, education, care, religion and many other human acts is the giving of oneself as a gift to another. The giving of gifts is a distinctly personal act, an act that requires freedom and intent. It is also the act by which we transcend ourselves yet become more ourselves than when we keep our selves entirely to ourselves.
We seem to be made to give of ourselves and to be in communion with others in a reciprocity of self-giving. We cannot really serve unless we give. Sacrifice denotes giving oneself. Families and communities need perpetual self-giving to survive. Religion is the means by which God's creatures give themselves to God and to each other. We might say that the human condition is marked by self-giving, yet corrupted by a failure to give oneself or to give oneself appropriately.
Given that self-giving is so integral to being human, is the giving of gifts a mark of our contemporary culture and society? Is our society at all structured on a spirit of generosity?
We have of course just celebrated Christmas, today is the Feast of the Epiphany, and I just recently had a birthday. These past few weeks have been times of gift-giving, of showing our love by the giving of gifts. We designate special days and occasions for the giving of gifts, but is the spirit of generosity made manifest in these special occasions present throughout the year in our relations with others? I wouldn't expect nor desire every day to be one in which presents are exchanged, but I wonder if by designating particular times for the giving of gifts we somehow absolve ourselves from living as reciprocal givers of ourselves the rest of the time.
What do you think? Is the spirit of generosity alive throughout the seasons? Do our social structures relate at all to the giving of ourselves? If not, how might our society be centered on a spirit of generous giving?
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