For many Americans, the year-end holiday season is synonymous with giving and receiving gifts. There’s nothing wrong with that. Well-chosen gifts for a loved one, or from a loved one, convey one’s personal feelings as well as the joy and meaning of the season. For many, however, the seasonal pressure to buy and bestow a large number of gift robs the act of personal meaning. There is another way to imbue gift-giving with meaning: A simple note that indicates that a donation to a worthy cause has been made in the recipient’s honor to a praiseworthy cause.
The Neediest Cases Fund, outlined above, is one such a cause. The fund is not the only endeavor of its type. There are many other church, community and charitable agencies whose work is worthy of support. It would be a hard-hearted individual, indeed, who would look askance at a note, card or letter informing him or her that a gift to a favorite charity or agency had been made in their name.
Such a thoughtful gift can unite giver and recipient in a common bond. It recognizes, too, that some individuals do not share the good fortune of most Americans. Some need shelter and food. Others lack adequate medical care and suffer from a dearth of jobs and educational opportunity. Still, life in the United States – even in these difficult times – is preferable to almost anywhere else outside the western world.
The situation in many other places is far more dire. More than a billion people lack clean water to drink on a daily basis. More than double that number are forced to live without rudimentary sanitation. In both cases, a preponderance of those affected are children. The result: Thousands of people, many of them young, die every day from diseases and conditions rarely seen here.
Scarcity of food, aggravated by the global economic crisis and changing environmental patterns that make subsistence agriculture difficult in many areas of the globe, raises the deadly toll. And even those who have access to water and food aren’t safe. War, the international sex and drug trade and political oppression make life difficult and dangerous for additional tens of millions.
Those sobering numbers should have a special meaning at this season of the year. They are a reminder that most Americans are the beneficiaries of good fortune, though that thought must be tempered by reality. We should not forget that many Americans, regardless of personal fortune, must worry this holiday about family and friends serving in the military in Afghanistan, Iraq and other dangerous locales.
We must remember, too, that about 15 percent of American families, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released earlier this month, were unable at some time last year to buy adequate food to feed themselves. And while the rise in the number of Americans who miss meals regularly has slowed in the last year, the total still is the highest since data were first collected in 1995.
In that context, giving myriad gifts solely because it is expected or to “keep up with the Joneses” seems to contradict the meaning of the season. Better to give at least one gift among many that will help hard-working people who because of circumstances often beyond their control are unable to enjoy the American dream. A gift to a group or a cause that provides assistance in the name of a family member or friend surely reflects the true purpose and meaning of the season.