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February 06, 2002
Giftmas, Revisited
Have you ever been surprised at how little gestures can have gargantuan effects?
There really isn't that much that I want when it comes to Christmas or birthdays. As odd as it would have seemed to me ten years ago, I would rather spend time with friends and family, than get a thing. I'd even go so far as to say that I'd be happy with a phone call. Does that make me old? I don't know. It just suits my sensibilities.
That having been said, I'll make a Christmas list anyway, mostly just to be a smartass. I tend to stretch for things and don't know what I generally want. So, for Christmas, I got some stuff. Some of it was useful, some of it was cool sentimental stuff, some of it has become a great toy for the cats. This morning, though, I realized which was my favourite gift of the year. It wasn't big or expensive or really hard to get. It was a little maple leaf pin, made from a piece of the roof of the Parliament Buildings, which had recently been renovated.
It cost maybe $5, tops, given to me at the airport while I waited for my flight home on Boxing Day. That's a blue $5 note with Sir Wilfrid Laurier on the front and a kingfisher on the back. It'd be worth approximate a George Washington and a Thomas Jefferson in US currency. (Scratching your head about the Thomas Jefferson? It's a $2 note.) The pin is copper, green-encrusted from reactions to the exposure to air. It sits snugly on the left lapel of my wool long coat, which I hadn't really worn since I went home to Canada due to the unseasonably warm weather in New York. I saw it this morning when I looked in my bathroom mirror and felt... good. I don't know how to explain it really. It's hard to put into words. I just felt good and comforted, like things were just right. They aren't, but at the time, everything seemed to just fit.
There wasn't any earth-shaking epiphany or life-altering realization, but for one brief moment in time, it made me feel fantastic. That is my favourite gift.
Posted by KinCross at February 6, 2002 09:58 AM