Possessions or Possessed
December 24, 2017
Mystery Gift
I opened it to get on to other more fun gifts. We got Fanner Fifties with holsters one year. There were no live outlaws after we possessed those widow makers. A trail of perforated paper with exploded caps did exist. I knew good stuff awaited, so best to get this out of the way. I unwrapped it. Inside a large box that once contained boots nestled between wadded newspaper was a small box with a Timex watch in it. I opened it and just looked at it. I didn’t open the other gifts; I just sat holding it for a long time. I had decided that it was one of those things in life you learn to give up. I had been given the thing I most wanted. A thing I had convinced myself I could not have. I was very grateful.
The truck with the augur was a neat gift and spent a long life adding holes to dirt areas around the yard, but for some reason a watch seemed to out weigh any toy on that day. It is ironic that today I never wear a watch. I wear no jewelry except my wedding ring. Watches are much more accurate, do not require winding now, as they did then. I still do not like them. Remembering this tonight at home after a moving Christmas Eve service it causes me to wonder. What else in my current life I want because I think it adds a certain cachet? I would hope I have outgrown chasing peer approval or seeking things that go out of style. I am fortunate to have had such great support from my parents and family. Those people in Smithshire taught me the value of relationships. In such a small community I learned the value of a person’s worth was not possessions.
Now, my hair is white and not a crew cut, I am still stocky, not skinny. I do know that this Christmas, no gift can offer me more than I already have. My family is a source of strength and their love is all the status I need. I have the opportunity to be the love of Christmas to those around me. Each day I pray to bring love, empathy, peace, and joy to the people I meet. It is trying to be filled with Jesus Spirit in this troubled world. Honesty requires me to admit a certain vanity. I enjoy the Crossfire, my body builder look, my leather jacket, and sunglasses (prescription), and a stylist cuts my hair not a barber with buzzy shears. I am self-reflective, and I try to not to choke on my vanity. I have possessions; I am privileged. I hope in my life I am not possessed by my possessions. Wearing a wristwatch and then learning to read the position of the hands to tell time is all rather anachronistic today. In our current world there is no way to not have time ever present. Over time the Timex taught me sometimes carrying, wearing, and caring for a possession is too much bother. Paraphrasing the immortal words of the storeowner in Lake Woebegone, if you don’t have it, you probably can get by without it. Merry Christmas I hope you got that one gift this Christmas; I know I have, and I haven’t yet opened a present.
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