Is there anything that doesn’t come with a price anymore? When you have dealt more with the outside world, you tend to bring the same mentality of being calculative back home.
When Mama asked me for a few ang pow packets for future uses, I gave them to her but was thinking how many I should keep for myself. I was willing to give, but not quite willing to give all, thinking I may need them for myself and will have to buy more in time to come. That was my first reaction, but thinking on it, it seemed like everything has to be conditional. When we give, we think too much about what we are sacrificing.
Well, that should not be the case. Giving should be unconditional and truly from the heart. I suppose this conditional giving attitude partly arises from the commercial and retail situations we face. When retailers promote their products at a discount, you wonder if there are any conditions tagged to them (usually indicated in their advertisements in super-micro fonts, or a mini-asterisk). Or when your boss treats you to coffee or a meal, there is usually more work to come. Even when you get promoted, you had better expect to place more time and energies into your work, say having extended working hours. So it’s right to say “there is no free meal in this world”.
But this shouldn’t be brought into your personal life and into the way you treat your family and loved ones. When you treat others in a calculative manner, they treat you back the same way and it becomes a vicious cycle. Besides, giving without restrictions will be a much happier thing to do, though that may take some time to realise.
So the next time I give to my loved ones and friends, I’ll bear in the mind the true art of giving. To those who aren’t sincere, hmm, shall consider. Wahaha.
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