手袋 (Gloves)

I heard a very interesting theory today, that if a man gives his girlfriend/ fiance/ wife a pair of gloves, it's a good sign because that means he wants those gloves to be there to keep her hands warm even if he's not there. Very romantic, even I "fawned" a little bit at that thought. I've never thought about that, and I guess I don't really know the symbolic meaning behind gifts, other than the most obvious ones, like maybe deodorant = hinting that you smell kinda bad, or giving

See, to me, giving presents has always been an exercise in what utility someone might have for that gift, which is probably why I am bad at giving gifts to others: I'm always thinking, "they're not gonna need that!" Because it's what I would think, I impose that thought process on my potential recipients, and so I often don't wind up getting anything, or just wind up giving a gift card or anything. I've never thought about any symbolism about gifts I received, so I don't try to put any implicit meaning behind the gifts I give....like if I get or give a sweater, I'm assuming it's to keep the recipient warm. The glove thing totally altered my mindset, and now I'm rethinking all the gifts I've ever gotten in the past, to see if there was any hidden messages in them.

Giving gifts, especially around Christmas time, is such a chore for me. First, I don't know what to give people, and secondly, I don't like the pressure of receiving something and having to kind of like it. Maybe it makes me a scrooge, but I think Christmas is just a commercial holiday that was invented to boost the retail industry and get us poor consumers to buy stuff we don't need, and at double the rate because once you get a gift from someone else, you have to reciprocate and buy something else neither person needs, and then it becomes a vicious cycle of just trying to seem like a nice person by buying gifts for others. I would much rather go to a restaurant, and pay for different meals on a consistent basis and show my appreciation that way in an immediate, fill-a-need, utilitarian way rather than just lump sum get someone a gift

It's a paradox too: children can make a list of things that they want Santa to get them and adults can pick out stuff to (spoiler alert) act like Santa and give to the kids, but as adults we're supposed to just "know" or at least pick up hints here and there about what someone MIGHT want, and make an educated guess and pick out something. And of course the adult who gets the gift that you guessed they'd like is never going to say they DIDN'T like it, so you're left never knowing if what you got was a good gift, and everything just gets lost in the cycle of politeness and "it's the thought that counts." Sure the thought counts and has symbolic value, but since you spent some money on the gift, don't you want it to have some utility?

I guess I'm traumatized, but the best gift I ever gave, I thought, was a guitar for my sister who liked music, and I thought it'd be something cool for her to have before she went to college. Teenagers love guitars, right? My sister opened it up once, tried it, said her hands didn't fit, and the guitar's just been siting there by its lonesome ever since. And my Christmas giving hasn't been very inspired since then.

Btw, if anyone might one day get me a present, gloves are always useful for me and symbolic now.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan