We have determined that the simple act of sharing will be good for the world in many ways. Sharing drives down the cost of living for everyone involved.
How then do we compliment the benefit of lower cost living for an additional and exponentially higher gain? We give gifts that require relationality (not an official word…..yet). The best gifts, in my opinion, are those gifts that are ineffective without someone with whom to share them.
For example, do you purchase your child an iPod or the board game of Monopoly? Answer: Which ever one requires the most relationship interaction…..probably the Monopoly game.
Do you purchase your mother the perfume she enjoys or a pound of coffee with a promise to give her an hour a week to talk while you drink together? My mom would suggest that I should do both :0) Mom knows that I pray for her. She would much prefer that I pray with her.
One of the challenges with the ever popular video/computer game craze is that human to human interaction is greatly diminished and possibly replaced by human to machine interaction. Machines are good for certain purposes, but should never replace conversation and communication between humans.
There is huge benefit in modern communication tools, yet there is also a serious downside. When you email your wife are you really talking with her? No, you exchanged bits and bytes and gigs of data. Is it even possible to meet someone on the internet? No! You didn’t meet, you exchanged binary code.
In one way the names of social networking tools are very funny to me. MySpace.com and Facebook are illustrations of this levity. In all reality you are the only person in your space when your computer is connected to MySpace. How many of our children leave the space of real, living, breathing humans, to try to socially connect with pre-digested computer data from an unknown “friend” in cyber space? Is it not common to ignore the face of your dear family and friends and enter the world of Facebook where one can only see a digital photo of someone’s face?
How about giving gifts which require relationship in order to be fully enjoyed? In this way the gift is meaningful and the return on your giving is inspirational, life-giving, soul stirring relationship.
My buddy Jonathan Gainsbrugh says it this way, “Kent, the internet is like the Tin Man. It doesn’t have a heart.”
By the way, I don’t drink coffee. I like tea :0)