“A gift confers no rights.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche 4 of 10
Best Gift Ever
Around July 4 we were in Lyon for the Women’s World Cup Football. And our friends George and Michelle F. had told us about the Food Center in Lyon that they had loved. Nurit and I visited on our third day there and I took some very nice pictures. On July 12 back in Phoenix I showed off my pictures and another friend Mike M. secretly took this picture and produced it as a postcard and then she printed me a hundred of them. What a great gift. I am blessed. Continue reading “Best Gift Ever”
The Eight Levels of Gifting
Want to find the perfect gift? This list might help you. Try to choose from the top of the list and buy:
- A Gift that the receiver wanted but didn’t expect.
- A Gift that creates new opportunities for the recipient.
- A Gift that is made or discovered rather than just purchased.
- A Gift that is purchased because the giver would like to have it.
- A Gift that is purchased because it is easy to buy or generic.
- A Gift that is outside the expectations of cost or effort.
- A Gift that is specifically requested or clearly needed by the recipient.
- A Gift that is purchased by the recipient and labeled as if from the giver.
Last year I created this list of the Eight Levels of Holiday Gift Giving. It is loosely based on Maimonides famous list of the eight levels of giving.
Happy Hanukkah
I like the eight night concept in Hanukkah. It allows for some do-overs and for some excitement building.
Here are a few gift I didn’t get:
A mini mini electric car
Scrabble Christmas ornaments
“Battery or Electric Branches”
“Traditional Electric Menorah”
Life is good.
Smart Phone Holiday
If you have a smart phone here are a few easy things you can do to with it to improve the holidays:
- When you get a gift from Aunt Sally in Coral Gables immediately take a photo of it and email her a thank you. The photo email is the new thank you note.
- Take a photo of a particularly nice Christmas display and email it to the oldest person in your family. Say “I saw this and wanted to share it with you.” Be sure to copy or blind copy your Mom.
- Set your ring tone to a holiday jingle
- Give the gift of Apps.
- Learn to dictate and transcribe notes. Then teach someone else.
- Use a holiday symbol, Tree, Star etc as your background in December.
- Use Postagram to send some real cards without ever going to the post office.
- Share pictures of a few things that made you laugh.
- Email your grandmother a picture of you having fun.
“Thanks Aunt Sally.”
March 29, 2012 Maxim
A New Bucket
For Hanukkah, Lillian found and gave me a perfect new bucket for the pond.
One of Maimonides, the medieval Jewish scholar, most famous ideas was his Eight Levels of Giving. They are still very germane today. According to the list the highest level is giving a loan to a person in need and the lowest is “giving unwillingly.” I’ve reprinted the entire list below.
Rebecca remembered that I wanted a new computer game and got me hooked happily on WarLight.
I was reminded of Maimonides classification system during this years Hanukkah gift giving extravaganza. A gift has to fill needs of both the giver and the receiver. Many don’t. Some gifts are bought on demand, some are given as a duty and some are perfect, filling a need the recipient didn’t know they had. I decided to write a list of the Eight Levels of Gift Giving. Originally I had seven levels but Fred R suggested that a list that refers to Hanukkah should have eight. The first level is most preferable but most gifts are appreciated:
- A Gift that the receiver wanted but didn’t expect.
- A Gift that creates new opportunities for the recipient.
- A Gift that is made or discovered rather than just purchased.
- A Gift that is purchased because the giver would like to have it.
- A Gift that is purchased because it is easy to buy or generic.
- A Gift that is outside the expectations of cost or effort.
- A Gift that is specifically requested or clearly needed by the recipient.
- A Gift that is purchased by the recipient and labeled as if from the giver.
I loved these kitchen utensils when we saw them in Israel. Nurit found them and bought me the set.
I was lucky enough to get three gifts from the first level this year. All of which are used to illustrate the article.