Giving Season

It is polish tradition to produce a grand dinner copious in an array of foods ranging from meats to fishes to vegetables. The table is clothed in white garments and the seats have been polished to a sheen. After a day's worth of fasting, with two snacks allowed, the human spirit has disconnected from the phone, computer, sports, and other material attachments and has almost exclusively focused it's will on esculent options. More of the family finds itself crowding around the table, not as savages, but as as brothers, as mother places more food on the table. By the time everyone has found themselves at the table horseradish root has found itself at the head of the table with cabbage rolls at the other end.  The steam that rises off some the food dances in the candlelight. It twists and turns and flickers in transparency with the flicker of the light. It find itself to the window and escapes, only to be replaced by a new wave of streams. The forms morph. Each one that arises is as transitory as the one before. Nonetheless, the family pays a small focus to them as they all kneel and recite the usual prayers. As they stand up they make sure to revisit that the food is still steaming only to grab a small, white square wafer of bread. They patiently offer it to every other member of the family.. In a trade of wafer, the two parties first hug, usually accompanying a smile that is subverted by a bigger smile that utters a genuine wish for prosperity in fields of academia, business, social life to the opposing party. The gesture is thus reciprocated, articulated in a new brand of style, and both parties then pick a piece of wafer from the other's. Once the trade of good fortune has been performed with every other member of the family everyone may commence to their seats at the table. The chair at the end with the horseradish is left empty, not in spite of that root, but should the event arise, a stranger, homeless or needing some company knock on the door in search of such faculties, may be allotted the seat at the table with the family. He or she will be offered a wafer, of course, but more importantly they will be asked to indulge in foods as the rest of them. For starters, everyone has to try a little bit of everything. That horseradish root will make its way around the table. Those young in body or puny in tongue will find it abjectly distasteful, however it need be only a little piece of the root. It is typically family tradition to lightly laugh at the those whose pallet cannot contain the harsh and definite burst of spice from the root. Nonetheless, everyone is expected to try a little of everything, ranging from the sweet to the salty to the spicy. I would like to report that those with allergies to certain foods do not have to partake in particular foods and the vegans and vegetarians aren't forced into partaking likewise. In addition, I have never had the experience of housing a stranger.

Likely, I never will. The American public is too skeptical of having a stranger off the street at their dinner table, and rightly so. The symbolism of the feast goes hand in hand with their religious beliefs, as they reflect on the year they've had as well as the year they are to have, before their attendance at a mass for the birth of their savior. To many of us, the 25th will be a holiday. It will not lead up to a great mass at midnight with choruses of singing. It will, however, lead up to an exchange of gifts.

It appears that material consumption has enveloped the 'season of giving.' One need not go far to hear the words of a mellow narrator for a car commercial inform one that it is that time to give and they've provided the perfect price for it. But how much giving do we need to give to those who we love? 365 days out of the year and the whole population deems themselves altruistic from one day of spending millions of dollars for each other? The equation for giving on christmas is easy. Whatever you do to one side you must do to the other. The equilibrium of one's wealth is typically stable as someone else provides them with a different solution, in a form of material gain, to placate their psychological discomfort. No, no one is really going. Everyone is going about consuming, forcing themselves into abjectly long lines; wasting myriad of hours finding things they aren't sure if the other party will like; unyieldingly scanning for new sales. It is such a mess of things. The new tradition has lobotomized the population into believing that buying for others is giving. We, as a whole, have indulged into ourselves far more than we should. Each year we provide each other with new gadgets and distractions to our lives at our table of plenty. These things know no warmth for our hands nor steam to our noses. We add more materials to our life, experimenting with each form to determine which yields the longest span of happiness. The public has forgotten to recognize their everyday attempts at giving to others, subverted by the climactic point in the economic year. Yet, they forget that satisfaction will be found when they can seat another at their table of plenty and share their goodness. A didactic lesson in academia; a selfless offer of a job; a simple exchange of words, especially to a stranger is arguably the most giving of one self.

This season I bought my mother and father a card, amounting to a grand total of 9$, and wrote to them words both of us cannot delete. A qwerty keyboard was not involved in the process. My pen in hand transcribed my heart to a card and will be there so long as they do not toss it or lose it. To my parents, I can give my heart. To a stranger, I can give my material. I can give them my time. To those with less than me, my genuine gesture of a gift card to a grocery store or fast food restaurant can make their holiday season. To a patient at St. Jude's, my donation of money I would've spent on superficial materials for my parents could make them smile for a lifetime. This year, I had limited resources but if the stranger cannot come to my feast, I shall go to his, or make him one. This giving season, I've given a little to those who I give every day of my life and given everything I can to those who didn't get a day of my consideration. I encourage the same to all of my peers.

Peace to all,
Patryk