Traditionally my little group in our very large office has a Christmas lunch, and does a Secret Santa style gift exchange. It’s always a week or so before we wind down before the holidays, and is a nice way to get together, which we don’t do often enough.
This year we had a bit of weirdness – we had three groups of exchanging pairs, where two people gave gifts to each other. Our team is only nine or so people, so that’s a really high number. One of those pairs was me, and a fellow on our team, and we gave each other books – not necessarily the most popular gift in these sorts of exchanges, but my team knows me, and knows I’m a reader.
I know I’m hard to buy for, but my kids manage. However, we were asked to provide some tips, so I said I love to read, I love motorcycles and I love coffee. When I unwrapped the gift, I was amazed to find a beautiful trade paperback, with ragged edges – the 40th anniversary edition of the Robert M. Pirsing classic “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values“. That was an awfully thoughtful gift. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and yes, I know it has less to do with motorcycles than one would expect from the title. The book does make you think, and evaluate. It’s wonderful at this time of year, when I spend a lot of time reviewing and thinking and evaluating.
Truly, it was an amazingly thoughtful gift. I’m very appreciative.
This is being written and published a little after Christmas. I hope that somewhere in your holidays, someone was just as thoughtful as my team mate. If they were, drop a note below, and let me know how they were kind to you.