A lot our everyday activity as humans are tied to the fact that at our core, majority of us are social creatures. There's the need to interact with one another, whether it's simply stopping on a busy sidewalk to get your favorite snack, or getting ready to enjoy some quality time with friends.
The act of gifting whether giving or receiving is also tied to our socializing nature. Coming from a society that is big on cultural values especially those that foster bonding in the community, this concept is doubly on me as my society believes that giving only makes you receive more. Whether it's a birthday, wedding, or something simple as naming a new born, the act of giving is encouraged at all points.
Personally I love receiving gifts, although majorly this is because over the years as I continued to age, the gifts I receive have continued to reduce. So whenever I get one no matter how big or small, I know the individual must've gone out of their way to get me the gift. But what happens when a gift is unwanted, particularly when you're trying to limit hoarding, how does one go about receiving such items?.
Refusing a gift outright might seem a straightforward and efficient way to keep true to a minimalist lifestyle, but this could create a rift between you and the person gifting. Especially knowing that the individual might've gone our of their way to get you one.
Collecting the gift would be the proper and polite thing to do, but then this would impede on the minimalist lifestyle.
For me personally, I try to find and strike a balance between what is plain unwanted, and what I can always work around. A large part of this is tied to the fact that as a Nigerian, in as much as subtlety is welcomed, openness is believed to be important. For example if my close friends were deciding to get me a gift for my birthday, it isn't necessarily frowned upon to instead ask them to give me the monetary value of that gift. The fact that they're close friends, makes it easier to bypass the awkwardness of having to receive a gift I don't necessarily need (Of course not everything is as straightforward as this).
In some other cases, I can always work around this. I've received quite a few gifts of wristwatches over the years, but the only one I ever use is one my little sister gifted me about ten years ago. Getting new wristwatches wouldn't necessarily mean I didn't appreciate the gift, but it's just something I would never use. Hence I tend to regift all of the watches I get and therefore solve the problem of keep them when I don't use them.
But sometimes just as the wristwatch my sister gave to me holds a sentimental value, there are times where I've been gifted something that holds an equally sentimental value to the one who was gifting me. The last such gift I received was from a friend, it was a book titled PROTEUS. It was a book that belonged to his dad, so even though I don't keep much hardcopies around and try to limit how many I keep, it was something I had to accept and couldn't possibly gift out (at least not immediately). The book is currently on loan to another friend at the moment.
I believe the act of gifting whether giving or receiving cannot be discouraged whether wanted or unwanted. You simply have to find a way to make it work depending on the situation.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end, this is in response to the #kiss prompt of the week.
Image used above is mine.
