So today we made christmas Ravioli, and my friends wife mentions
how she inherited her Grandmother's pasta press (which she was using
to make the dough for the ravioli.
So my mind immediately went into overdrive...
When buying presents for parents and grandparents you should buy
something you would like to have in your house at some point in the future...

Too dark?

Merry Christmas

I very much enjoyed your post!

To be even more sinister... one might suggest that it is simply unnecessary to provide such gifts, as they (the person in question) will "soon be gone".

Previously, I had known an individual that, prior to the death of their remaining parent, had surreptitiously funneled away the life-savings of the latter. The victim had repeatedly expressed surprise that their funds had dwindled over a span of a few years. By comparison, your thoughts are an innocent curiosity.

Just because you bought it doesn't necessarily mean you would receive it back as a bequest. Even given the present was sure to be returned eventually that still leaves the working life during the remainder of the target of your gift to enjoy it.

The desire to give yourself a present via a risky and circuitous expense incurred with the purchase or procurement of said gift is probably best categorized as a misguided selfish act in the guise of a selfless one; the merit is surely diminished by the motive but only to anyone who knows or is savvy enough to guess, which is probably only you. So you would be feeling bad about something that ordinarily would make you feel good —— self-harm. In the meantime, the gift is a gift and ought to be appreciated for what it is or does or means.

As an aside, a lot of people (I confess I have done this, but without malice) buy things for others that they themselves would like to have. (I often buy extra copies of a book or a game I really liked in order to give them to others in the hope they like them too. Is that similarly selfish, or just prospective wish-fulfilment? A yearning for someone to share the enjoyment one has taken from it? Does it really matter what subjective interior monologue a gifter has when giving to another? Are we just adding complication?)

Tune in next week to find out the answers to these and other questions: same Bat-time, same Bat-channel …




… And, here's to a safe, cheerful, and Merry Christmas to all. :)

It is neither dark, nor macabre.

Macabre, specifically, is to do with fear or sense of death. Dark, in relation to humor, is things like gallows humor, morbid humor, usually dealing with taboo subjects.

But do you pronounce it mah-CRAH-may or MAC-ra-mae? :o
Curious people want to know!