What Is a Gift?

Sketch from "Random Gifts of Art"

Every time I pass some person standing on the street with a sign I give them money. It's a habit that sometimes bites me in the ass, but not how you'd think. I don't ask what it's for (though I often try to get them to tell me a story, like the young man who was a gulf war pilot––think if it: a man who flies fighter planes, begging for money on the street!!) I'm quite sure that just as some use the money for food others use it to buy drugs; that's people for ya! But it's not for me to decide; it's mine to respond to the human being before me.

I'm regularly accused of being made a pansy by shysters. I'm accused of only pretending to be generous while secretly just making myself feel good. I confess on both accounts. What is a gift anyway? Who's to say?

I have a friend whom I know from personal experience is a very competent and caring doctor. I recently heard from a therapist who says she has clients that say he's a pawn, easily manipulated into proscribing drugs. But there are others who swear that were it not for him they would be condemned to a life of chronic pain. The difference between those two rests entirely on the character of the person involved. Is the doctor healing or enabling? Who's to say?

In the end any gift can be reversed by a naysayer. Yes, the world is full of both thieves and worthy recipients. Both are the humans we encounter daily, not knowing the one from the other. Jesus tells us do not judge; if someone steals your coat give him your shirt is well. You can call a Christian like myself a fool and a pansy. And if that makes you feel good that makes two of us! So is that a gift, or no?

I recently gave a woman a wad of money that I thought might save her life. This morning a friend tells me, "She's probably going to use it to kill herself." Yes, perhaps. But if it buys her one more day, was that worth it? If I was  purely manipulated and it simply makes me feel like a better person, was that worth it? Who's to say? Does generosity really exist or are we all just pansies trying to make ourselves feel worthy? Who's to say? That's people for ya!