According to the great seasonal cliche, Christmas is a time of giving.
The main characteristic of giving is that it is an act of free will that comes from the heart. Yet gift-giving can be the product of the need we feel to conform to expectations. We give presents to family members, friends and colleagues, partly to buy their continued acceptance of us in their lives.
If this applies to us and we feel we have no choice in the matter, gift-giving is not about free will at all, but captivity.
We may in fact feel gracious towards people because they have been there for us during the year. But the exercise of gift-giving is not an expression of that graciousness if it's something we feel we have to do. We are not giving, we are paying, and we know that if we don't pay, there will be consequences. In effect, it is a kind of private taxation.
It is not necessarily a bad thing to give a present that is a requirement of etiquette rather than an expression of love. But it's important that we are able to identify the particular act of giving as such, in the way that we know very well what we are doing when we pay our taxes to the Australian Tax Office.
Our feelings when we pay taxes are usually not positive. That is a pity, because what we are doing is contributing to society's common good. But if it's something we've got to do, there is no heart felt sharing of self that is the characteristic of true giving. This is true of Christmas presents, too.
It does not have to be that way. Bill Gates' presence in Australia during this holiday period reminds us that contributing to the common good can be a very satisfying exercise of free will.
Gates chose to give away more than a third of his wealth to causes such as education and global health and development, even though this cost him his 'world's richest man' title. He chose not to conform to the expectation that he would hold on to his wealth.
Michael Mullins is editor of Eureka Street.
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