A Lesson in Giving

Yesterday I posted a story about my Grandpa Grandy. I have also been thinking about my Grandma Grandy, my mom's mom. (I think about my grandparents a lot. I have for years.)

A long time ago, when my Grandma Grandy was sick, I bought a number of short wave radios for the family. They weren't especially good performers, they were just inexpensive tickets to world band listening and I thought my grandparents and parents would enjoy them.

Toward the end, Mom said Grandma Grandy had been listening to a lot of Christian programming on the one I gave her. At the time I considered it a shame she and Grandpa weren't using it as a shortwave and wasting their time instead on local religious nonsense.

I didn't say that, of course.

Today I understand a little better.

A distant, tangential thought: We often grant folks in their senior years a great deal of latitude in their choices and behavior. Sometimes this is because their faculties are waning, but more often it's because we want them to enjoy what time they have left without regard to how unhealthy or trivial it seems to us.

Perhaps that is because we know we're not far behind.

The greatest joy of giving comes from letting go; it can also sometimes be quite painful. And joyless.

Started: 2012-05-09