The Gift

THEME THURSDAY

http://www.theme-thursday.com

asks us to consider GIFTS

THE GIFT

I thought of gifts......

And I remembered

Something inconsequential

And yet, to me, momentous.

*

I was twenty

And, until that time,

I had believed that people

Understood themselves!

After that,

Doubt crept in.

And it has stayed nestling in my psyche

Ever since.

*

On that Spring day

I began to question.......

Motive.

*

I got off the bus,

Ready to walk to my lodgings,

In the little Kentish town of

Sidcup.

On my way I passed a flower shop.

Bowls of violets

Were displayed.

*

Suddenly,

For no reason at all,

Except, maybe, because it was Spring,

I thought

'I'll buy Mrs N. a bowl of violets!'

She was my landlady,

Nothing more than that.

*

I bought a bowl of violets,

Filled with the joy of giving,

And, light-heartedly,

Resumed my walk.

*

But, as I walked,

A dreadful realisation came to me.

I was not buying violets

For Mrs N.

I was buying them for myself,

So that I would feel good!

I was picturing her delighted smile,

I was hearing her delighted words.

I was imagining how she would

Praise my kindness

To the other lodgers!

*

In other words,

I was a fraud!

*

In a fit of self-loathing

I flung the pot of violets

Into the nearest dustbin,

And walked home,

Cleansed.

*

The years have made me 

More accepting of my own failings.

But I still remain uncertain

Of some of my motives.

*

And the motives of others.

*

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WRAPPING PAPER

Of all the many Xmas trappings

We're most aware of Xmas wrappings.

Try to imagine a Xmas Tree

Without the brilliant hues we see

Hiding the precious gifts inside

And all with pretty ribbons tied!

Wrapping-paper, we tend to think

Must be a very ancient link

To years and years way in the past!

Tradition that's been made to last!

But at the time my mother was born

The paper we now see crushed and torn,

Designed to do nothing else but wrap,

Came about by a mere mishap!

In nineteen-hundred, so we're told,

Tissue-paper alone was sold;

The colours were red and green and white;

No little pictures were in sight.

In 1917 the brothers Hall

Had no tissue-paper left at all!

They had sold-out! What could they do?

They had to think of something new.

Sheets for lining envelopes

Started reviving all their hopes.

Normally these sheets were cut

To fit the envelope sizes but

Now they laid full sheets in view!

They happened to be patterned too!

 People raved and people clamoured;

Even on the windows hammered!

The paper sheets ran out the door!

And so they printed more and more!

They made designs of stars and trees

And other emblems such as these.

The Hall brothers built their company

Purely accidentally!

'Hallmark'... the name is known world-wide!

Paper to wrap gifts inside

Became their 'hallmark' (excuse the pun)

And they were copied by everyone.

So the wrapping paper we all know

Appeared not many years ago!

Less than a hundred! A recent addition!

Yet already we call it 'a tradition'!

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