For the last few months, we have been bombarded by advertising - all presenting the essential gift, which would make the girls flock about, the kids to laugh, the partner to smile...
We were supposed to visit my wife's family, and gifts have been selected appropriately. Then COVID intervened. The gifts are packed away in anticipation of a later visit, and here we sit. The kids are with their other families. We had an unforgettable lunch with my mother and my two sisters. The magic of Skype enabled her to chat with my brother in Cape Town. Then we had an "in" afternoon and evening, under a real highveld thunderstorm, with close friends, and again technology enabled our friend to talk to her two sons, one in the USA, one in the Netherlands.
We were able to hear from the grandchildren about how they had experienced Christmas, and one granddaughter showed off her new bicycle, promptly falling into a flowerbed. It was not so much the bike, as the fact that her dad, long absent on remote jobs to earn enough for his family, was there to give it.
But what struck me again was that it was not the gifts that made the impression but the human behind it. The giving, not of some expensive item, but the love and caring it represented. It is not the value of the gift. It is the love and caring behind it that counts.
I hope all at TheLatest could reconnect with friends and loved ones one may have lost contact with through various COVID-induced lockdowns. May our human relations be stronger, more understanding, and deeper after the past year's difficulties. And may the wonder of technology enable us to grow new networks and friendships.