Christmas Gifts

Tis the season to be jolly. It is a time to give gifts; it is a time to receive gifts. Here is a way to do both without bankrupting the budget: the gift of love as other-giving is to treat all with dignity and respect. It is to treat them as equals, to liberate them to enjoy the opportunity to do something with their lives. The healthy power relationship between the self and others is other-giving at its finest: under this gift, one seeks power over none, and refuses to allow anyone to have power over oneself. This is not the same as obeying a traffic cop, or following orders from the government or at work. Those are institutional examples of obeying, and accepting another to have power over one, a real but limited amount, within their functionary scope of duties.

This refusal to allow others to have power over one is the maverize: to live one's life as an anarchist-individuator to the maximum extent possible or reasonable.

The second gift of love is love as self-giving. One embraces the lifestyle of self-realization as a religious quest, a lifelong journey of discovery and development. It is impossible to overstate how different and better our world will be when 75% of American adults make the commitment to self-give and follow through with it.

Other-giving and self-giving are gifts sent and received.