All Too Wrapped Up

The other day at the gift-wrapping section of the department store near our office, a woman customer was asking the staff for the “most expensive-looking” wrapper for her gift. It was a coffee mug she was giving to a friend who just passed the board exam. Whisperingly she said it would be an embarrassment for a cheaply gift to be made to look its true value.

A gift is always a nice thought, whether you’re hoping to receive or intending to give one. But a gift also has other sides to it – we receive gifts we do not like or give gifts we do not want to give. Not everybody understands the true meaning of a gift.

Some people get too burdened about what to give. This is especially so when budget is tight, or when the giving is not sincere. Others devote much more time and effort in wrapping their gifts than they did in choosing them.

When a gift is not of good value, its giver will try to wrap it well, to compensate. People tend to overdo it that by the time the gift is wrapped and wrapped and over-wrapped, the packaging has overtaken the importance of the gift itself.

In the end, the core essence of the giving is covered over. We value the look of the gift package over its meaning – the ostentation over the intention.

It is, in a way, like the way we do with our own selves. We become so concerned with packaging, with outward appearance. Our interactions with others become wrapped around so many times, that we no longer see essential meaning in our relationships.

In our business and social dealings, for instance, we often become too pre-occupied with our projected image that we tend to lose idea of what we really are inside. Underneath the various layers of wrapping, our innate truth is gasping for breath amid our desire to look “perfect.” In the end, we send the false message about ourselves.

Trying to cover up our flaws will not drive them away. The better thing to do, perhaps, is to work earnestly on our flaws and improve what we can. Perhaps it is a gift we can give our imperfect selves to try to do our best in our imperfect world.

When we overcome feelings of inferiority and indifference, we stir up the divine in us. We begin to reach out. Our life will expand gloriously beyond our perceived imperfections.

Life itself is an amazing gift package filled with potentials for success, happiness, love and joy for all. These potentials, though, are difficult to materialize when we’re over-wrapping our life with worries, concerns, apprehensions and fears. And the gift of life is highly perishable – it is wasted when we hold it back and allow it to stale.

We may only give what we have but, more importantly, what we are. We are never perfect, but we can be genuine. That matters more, for sure.