173. REGIFTING - What, If Anything, Does Our Unease With Regifting Tell Us About Ourselves?
I’ve got to be honest folks…I am exhausted. More than that - I’m ill. Last week took it out of me and as I look ahead at the final week of term (starting in just a few short hours as I write this on Sunday evening) I see just more and more big jobs that need to be completed before the break. I spent most of the last few days coughing and sneezing and trying tell myself the wretched lurgy going through the school probably isn’t Covid (though it feels a lot like Covid!) and, though I had a big inspiration of a final Philosophy Unleashed to write of 2023 - on the ethics of Christmas regifting - earlier in the week, as I sit here now at my computer, snotty and full of self-pity, I just don’t think I have the stamina to write anything worthwhile.
So, ironically, instead of analysing our strange reticence around regifting presents at this time of year (and why there even are gifts we don’t want and never did) I shall do the lazy but self-preserving thing of regifting you some of my previous year’s festive offerings. That’s right - it’s a clip show!
My personal favourite is 2022’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL - ONE YEAR ON. Mainly because it’s the only one since 2019 that isn’t covid-focused. It seems the coronavirus is a perennial favourite of mine this time of year, from the first Christmas with Covid, to the 2021’s thoughts on ‘party-gate’. Though it also seems the major repeated theme is my utter exhaustion at this time of year and need to take a break. The first year I was running this blog at Christmas it didn’t even occur to me to write to a theme at Christmas, but I suppose the discussion about charity singles and how we pay for music has festive relevance.
Speaking of music - I am also exhausted because on Friday I finally released a year-long music project I have been working on over on Bandcamp. It will be out everywhere on Friday but if you fancy hearing what I’ve been up to writing a brand new song every month for twelve months, that’s where you can find it until Friday.
So yes - a disappointing end to the year. Like when your favourite TV show does a Christmas special but it isn’t set at Christmas and was just an excuse for the cast to go on a big holiday somewhere exotic. I wish I could give you something more - something new! But a regift is all I have in me so a regift is all you’re getting.
If that makes you annoyed, think about why. Think about what the problem is with a perfectly good gift that might have been intended for someone else, or some other reason, or even used before, and get back to me in the comments. But just know that if you do think such thoughts, then I have effectively still given you the intended new post about regifting and stimulated your thinking about it despite not actually writing anything new. That the regift can become simply a gift. That maybe it’s our perception that is the problem, not the gift’s legacy of past ownership?
Why do we regift? Because we can’t afford the cost, or time, to get a new gift. We look around the house and see what’s already there. What will do? And we pick something not to cheat the recipient, but because we really think that it will do. That it is a good gift for them even if it wasn’t for us, and so long as they don’t find out that it is being handed on to them after someone first handed it to us - who cares? Or - we regift because we really don’t care. The money or time to get something new is simply not worth it to us for that person and they can make do with whatever we can stick a card on and hand over to them with a smile. We put in exactly as much effort and money as we think is deserved.
In either case I am not sure there is anything there except our fabricated, consumerist ideology of ‘newness’ and ‘buy buy buy’ that makes the act wrong.
Again though - tell me in the comments if you think I’m wrong.
Either way - merry Christmas. Rest will come soon - we all deserve it! Just hang on in there for as many more days as you have to and do what you must to take care of yourself (including phoning in some of your commitments that feel like they’re too much). I’ll see you with more Philosophy Unleashed, refreshed and revived, in 2024.
Author: DaN McKee (he/him)
My book, ANARCHIST ATHEIST PUNK ROCK TEACHER, is out everywhere now on paperback and eBook. You can order it direct from the publisher or from places like Amazon. It makes a lovely Christmas present for the anarchist, atheist, punk rocker, or teacher in your life!
My other book - AUTHENTIC DEMOCRACY: An Ethical Justification of Anarchism - is available HERE , from the publisher, and from all good booksellers, either in paperback or as an e-Book. Listen to me on The Independent Teacher podcast here. Read my Anarchist Studies journal paper on Anarchism and Character Education here. Listen to me on the Philosophy Gets Schooled podcast here. Listen to me talk anarchism and wrestling here. For everything else DaN McKee related: www.everythingdanmckee.com
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