What is the Least Appreciated Gift?
Many possibilities come to mind.
It might be a gym membership. Or it might be a vacation, all expenses paid, to your in-law’s house. But my answer is much more common. It is unsolicited advice.
This is interesting because advice books can make very good gifts.
The sticking point, therefore, is the unsolicited part.
This means, when looking for a book as a gift, seek one the recipient has expressed interest in and not one providing advice you think he or she needs.
So, why do so many people give unsolicited advice when it is rarely appreciated?
It has been my observation (including recalling my own past behavior) that people who tend to give a lot of advice don’t seem to know it is, for the most part, like 99.99% of the time, unappreciated. This is probably why a lot of unsolicited advice flows freely out of so many mouths.
A second big motivation for offering one’s learned opinion about things is that it will make the advice-giver feel useful and important.
A third reason has to do with how the behavior of the one we want to give a big junk of our minds to is really messing with our peace and tranquility. Of course, the problem with annoyed-spontaneous-advice is that it usually becomes the type people cannot actually follow, often involving going to places not in the known world or placing objects in personal spaces absent solar illumination. So, what to do?
People may not want advice, but they usually appreciate time.
Spending time just to be with people, absent any big agenda or ulterior motive, can be a huge gift.
And when it comes to giving time to someone, let’s not forget ourselves and God.
Frequent Sabbaths, and periodic Sabbaticals, like periodic fasting, can actually aid in giving us better health, productivity, and happiness. We need time to unwind, and who knows? Perhaps we will lose the desire to disseminate all the unasked for directives.
As always, take what you like, and leave the rest.
