Gratitude

When you give an anonymous gift, you remove the self from the gift. Sure, it makes you feel good to give. But your thoughts can turn to others by way of imagination. You are now free to think more about the recipient and what s/he might be thinking. The recipient may try, at first, to figure out who it was that gave them the gift. But that is just a fantastical past-time, even if the recipient is ‘sure’ that s/he knows who it was. Really, in the end, can one really know? It may be narrowed down, possibly. But what happens when a person is given something anonymously? S/he is forced to think about the altruism of all the possible candidates. What a way to spend an afternoon thinking about friends, acquaintances, and loved ones!

-Mike McKane