How do you feel about getting terrible gifts?
On several occasions, I have gotten gifts that were so abysmal, I wished I had gotten nothing at all.
One time, a friend came from abroad to spend a few months in my house. He presented me with a t-shirt…. the ugliest, most god-aweful t-shirt you could imagine. It wasn’t just a matter of taste; he never wore anything like this, and everyone agreed this was something he picked up at the airport out of a remainder bin.
Another time, I let a family stay with me, rather than letting them spend thousands of dollars on an apartment for the summer. I also lent them my car many days, while I took the train. This time, I had no worries about bad gifts. They gave me nothing.
Recently, I had another foreign visitor. He presented me with a tin of cookies, a $3 tin of cookies. Of all the bad gifts, this one was probably the least offensive, but I would rather get nothing than some weak excuse for a real gift.
In each case, money was not a problem for them
.
How do you feel?
Jamie