Minor Thoughts from me to you

I have two more reasons for defending gift cards. They’re mostly reasons why I like to receive gift cards and not necessarily a great reason for me to give gift cards to someone else.

Impatience

I’m often hesitant to give people specific gift ideas because I’m impatient. Since I’ve been working in a steady, well-paying job I’ve gotten used to (mostly) buying whatever I want, as soon as I want it. That’s the main reason, in fact, that I don’t have a long list of gift ideas—almost everything I want, I’ve already purchased.

As soon as I put an item onto a list of gift ideas, I’ve lost the ability to buy that item for myself. There’s now a chance that someone else has purchased that item for me. Until the occasion rolls around (Christmas, my birthday, etc), I don’t know whether or not I received it as a gift. And I can’t buy it until I do know.

Because I’m impatient, that drives me nuts. When I decide that I want something, I want to get it now. I don’t want to wait another 3 months (or even 3 weeks). I want to be free to just go ahead and get it, without worrying about disappointing someone.

Sure, practicing the discipline of patience would probably be good for me. But I’m not particularly inclined to use gift receiving as an opportunity for that.

Laziness

Making a gift list would require that I then keep that gift list up to date. There are multiple book series that I’d like to eventually own. There are also multiple books that I already own as physical books that I’d like to own as eBooks.

In both cases, I could make a list of what I want. But then I’d have to keep that list up to date. Each time I think of a new entry, I’d have to remember to add it to the list. And each time I get something (whether on my own or as a gift), I’d have to remember to remove it from the list.

Honestly, that all sounds like a lot of work. And I’m lazy, so it probably wouldn’t get done. Instead, the list would rot and moulder and I’d run a very real risk of receiving something twice (from different people) or of receiving something that I’d already bought for myself. And that doesn’t sound like any fun at all.

Bottom Line

Getting a gift card, allows me to be both impatient and lazy without making either you (as the giver) or me (as the receiver) feel bad. It really is the perfect gift. And I’d love to receive it, with thankfulness, gratitude, and appreciation.