Sunday, December 16, 2007 Lim: Give, don't ask By Melanie T. Lim Wide Awake
I TAKE great delight in shopping for gifts. Although it is not an easy task, I find fulfillment in the selection process. It has become increasingly difficult for me to select gifts as my godchildren grow up. Their wants and needs change over time and I am often unsure about what to give them as they grow older. It’s a little bit easier with the girls but with the boys, I am often at a loss.
Still, I always look forward to that time of the year when I do my Christmas shopping. Chore it may be but through the years, a pleasant chore it has become for me.
Giving, as receiving was for me when I was young, has become a wonderful activity for me at this time in my life. My personal philosophy on giving is to give when you can because you won’t always be able to give as much or at all. Situations change over time. It’s better to seize the moment to give when you can then to let it pass and never be able to do it anymore or at all.
And my personal philosophy on asking? I think we should give when we can—not ask when we can.
I have always found it distressing every Christmas to have people going around stores, offices and homes to ask for gifts. Customers go to vendors and ask for “pinaskuhan.” Firefighters, garbage collectors, barangay tanods and a host of other people from one’s community go to the houses and business establishments to “ask” for Christmas gifts.
I think that this practice of “asking” has been so deeply ingrained in our culture that we have actually forgotten that is not right to “ask” for Christmas gifts.
Corporate organizations are not even exempt from this shameless Christmas tradition. My sister who caters to the food industry receives numerous letters from her corporate customers each year “asking” for donations for their annual Christmas parties. And these companies are big companies in the community—not small mom and pop stores.
I am not saying it’s completely wrong to “ask.”
We ask for corporate sponsorship for special events but a Christmas party is an annual event. It’s NOT a special event. It’s a regularly recurring event. Asking every year is no longer asking for a donation or sponsorship. It’s asking for a regular subsidy.
Yes, we ask for charity. We ask that those who have more give to those who have less. I have asked people to donate in behalf of the less fortunate. But asking for a corporate Christmas party? Shouldn’t corporate management be taking care of this? Or is corporate management AWARE of this, at all?
I call upon corporate management to investigate the actions of their employees. Discipline them. Censure them. Teach them it is NOT all right “to ask” for gifts or donations for corporate Christmas parties. Ask your personnel to stop sending letters of solicitation to your corporate suppliers. Let’s take care of our employees. You take care of yours. We take care of ours.
Most people take great delight in giving, especially during holiday season. But I should hope that most people stop the practice of taking great delight in “asking.”
