The Gift of Being in the Presence of Greatness

Well, that's a lofty title, isn't it? However, it speaks to one of my favorite topics at this time of year: Giving meaningful experiences as holiday gifts instead of giving STUFF and all the things that STUFF entails (manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and cluttering up your house, just for starters). Far be it from me to alarm you, but one of our neighbors decked out his yard for Christmas on the weekend before Halloween (he wins the dubious award for the earliest-ever decorations), so for the past few weeks, the holidays have been tip-toeing around inside my head. With two children under age 10, believe me, the holidays are never far off our radar.

I'm just hazarding a guess, but your kids--like our kids--probably don't need a whole slew of new toys for the holidays. Long after they've lost most of their 8,786 Legos (the dog chewing up about 21% of them, another 32% scattered under various couches and beds, and another 17% lost along with the mysteriously vanishing solo socks), they'll still remember the night you took them to see a world-famous musician, which is what we did on Saturday night. We took our children to see virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman.

My son, who is 9, has been playing the violin for the past year, so he was particularly excited about the evening. My daughter, who is 6, was hyped-up as well, but mainly because it was a great excuse to wear her favorite dress with the fox on it, along with its matching fox tights.

She had a rather abstract, six-year-old's understanding that this was a Very Important Person we were watching perform, but what really made the concert more fun for her was when I told her to listen carefully to each piece of music and imagine what story the composer and the violinist were trying to tell together. After each piece was over, during the robust applause, she would lean in to say things such as "that song was about a family of bunnies running around in a meadow."

For me, I'll just say that I didn't know any living person could produce such a wide range of exquisite notes on a violin, so effortlessly and expressively, all without any of those strident, screechy sounds reminiscent of stepping on a cat's tail. He played without an orchestra, just a pianist for accompaniment, so we could really focus on the sweetness of the violin. Imagine the following transcendent piece of music (which he played as one of the encores), stripped back to the simple purity of a violin and a piano:

But the best part of the night for me was sitting three rows behind my son (he and my husband had the last two available front-row balcony seats) and watching my little boy witness somebody whom he admires, doing what they (my son and, presumably, Itzhak Perlman) love to do.

We had a similar kind of experience when we went to a Yankees game last year and my son got to meet Derek Jeter, his hero, before the game. After receiving a personally autographed ball from the very tall and very charming Mr. Jeter, who loped off to meet some other adoring fans, my son turned to me and whispered, "Mom, I'm so glad I didn't go through with my plan to pretend to faint!" That's right: He was so nervous and didn't know what he would say if he actually met Derek Jeter, so that had been his plan--to feign fainting. But he didn't "faint", and he did manage to talk coherently to his hero, and now we have this picture below to remember that golden morning of his life. Even without the picture, I don't think he'd ever have forgotten it. Which is more than I can say for the time he received his seventh box of Legos or his thirtieth stuffed animal. Yes, he enjoyed and appreciated them, but they're just not in the same league. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

So, this holiday season, consider thinking outside the box for gifts. Literally. Instead of giving more STUFF, think of an experience you can give to your children, or your significant other, or even yourself--an experience to make you smile on a gloomy day when you don't feel like smiling, a few positively magical hours to look back on with warmth and fondness for years to come. What activity does your child (or your spouse, or your dad) love to do, and who in the world is really good at it? Is there an opportunity for you to bring the two people together within the next year? Yes, these types of experiences tend to be more expensive than your average gift (and I've already suggested ideas for gifts that cost little or nothing--see the linked articles below). But for me, I'd rather give one really great experience than twenty-five gifts of STUFF that will get lost in the back of a closet.

************************************************************************************************************************

Your turn: Have you ever given or received a really special experience as a gift? Met somebody you've long admired? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

*************************************************************************************************************************

If you enjoyed this post...

Get more like it by subscribing via email or RSS reader (under "Categories" on the right).
Click HERE to like Joyfully Green on Facebook, where you'll receive new posts first, plus the latest nature news.

Thanks for reading Joyfully Green!

**************************************************************************************************************************