--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 34 number: 2 published: 1930-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “To Give and to Receive,” *Improvement Era* 34, no. 2 (December 1930): 68–68." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3402unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3402unse start_page: 68 end_page: 68 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1930-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3402unse publication_year: 1930 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1930, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # To Give and to Receive 68 The Improvement Era for December, 1930 To Give and to Receive HPHE year, from its very beginning, looks toward -*- Christmas. Occasions are dated as being 'before' or 'soon after' Christmas, and all during the fall eyes are open to discover new and unusual gifts for Aunt Jane, Cousin Sue and the friend who surprised us last year with that delightfully unexpected desk set. When the great day actually comes into sight, prep- arations become more active. Plans and secrets are made with feverish intensity and the minds of the practical, thrifty people of earth appear to weaken. As they enter shopsful of beautiful trinkets, the sane idea of a set of hot dish holders for Mother and house slippers for Dad suddenly retires into a corner of the brain where unused ideas belong, and Mother's gift turns out to be a mother of pearl corsage bouquet, while Dad's carpet slippers .are , supplanted by a set of tortoise -backed brushes, fitted beautifully into a traveling case which he might use once a decade for the remainder of his life. The very air of the shop- ping section is enchantment itself, and one who sur- renders oneself to the effect of it must expect to be carried away in its witchery. Windows full of toys and tinsel; aisles running over with enticing, holly- bedecked articles; streets jammed with laughing, tired shoppers, weary under their delightful burden of ribbon-tied bundles! Warmth, lights, pine-fragrance of trees waiting to be carried home; friendliness, laughter, good-will and color! Why should not the earth be merry? One of the most beautiful gifts of life is the ability of people to cast aside care and trouble once a year and join together in a great, world-wide celebration; to forget class, distinction and mingle with those much richer and those much poorer in a good-hu- mored jostle over the toy counter; to let busi- ness and politics, society and justice rest for a short season ; to take time to be glad. Many there are who claim to disbelieve the divinity, and some even the existence, (of the lowly Nazarene, yet even they join with glad abandon in the festivities of the season which honor his birth. They seek for gifts to send to family and friends, tokens of the gifts brought from afar, of gold and frankincense and myrrh on that first Christmas, long, long ago. To make the Christmas custom of giving and re- ceiving the glorious thing it can be, there must be education to precede it, just as there must be training for leadership, dentistry and engineering, if the work ahead is to be accomplished successfully. Christmas-schooling is not, of course, the same sort as is dental, any more than training along electrical lines enables one to qualify as a physician. There must be specific, applicable study, in which must be com- bined analysis, appreciation, self-criticism and deter- mination to separate values and re-arrange them into their proper grooves. It is an education of the spirit, and has in it a bit of mathematics, for the under- standing of the giver's feelings must be added to the gift itself, all disagreements be subtracted from the sum-total, the result multiplied by the possibilities for deepened friendship, and the product indivisible by jealousy or selfishness on the part of the giver or the recipient; there is geography in it, for every corner of the globe is penetrable by such education ; there is history, for the. great characters of the ages have come down to us in record of just such achievement — the subjection of personal ambition to a cause. Socrates, Joan of Arc, Lincoln — and above all the Man of Na- zareth himself — have had the education of heart and soul which raises one person above another. It is the only mark of true aristocracy. He who gives at Christ- mas, or any other time, with love in his heart, and he who receives with joy and love returned, are those who have learned well the lessons of the course in hu- manity. The time to learn these methods, to acquire such education, is not alone in December, with snow on the .ground and holly wreaths in all the windows; neither is it jn any other specific season of the year, with particular reasons for happiness and generosity attendant. It is every hour of every day of the year, for no matter how busy we are with manufacturing, selling, typing or scrubbing, there is one avenue of the brain, and all of the heart, free for learning lessons unrelated to business routine, and ^untouched by the scrubbing brush. The thought of a kindness done, or waiting to be done ; the memory of a bit of cloud or a flash of color ; the hope of putting a ray of sunshine into the life of one less fortunate than we — these are the daily lessons which fit into other concerns to the benefit of all and the detriment of none. At Christmas time, particularly, material values are so meager in comparison with the intangible ones that we need consider them only as indications, as expressions of them. A primrose by the river's brim may be only a yellow primrose until it is sent in a pot to some one who loves yellow flowers, when it becomes a .message of love and cheer; a jewel of great value is of real worth according to the degree of af- fection, respect, repentance or good-will it carries with it, and a rose could carry as much — perhaps more because there is a quality of fragrance there which cannot be captured. Along this line, Dr. Rich- ard Cabot says that he has a grudge against precious stones because they cost so much and can be enjoyed by so few, while none are more beautiful than the sparkle of snow crystals, and dew and sun on streams. "Daily jewels," he says, "are violin notes, cool water on a hot face, thrush notes at dawn, swift laughter, lights in eyes or on the street, waves breaking into white foam. * * * The song of a thrush brings up forgotten memories and emotions. * * * One jewel-like rrroment can sustain through long hours of dullness. A shining moment centers the meaning of a whole month, as a single cadence dominates the development of an entire symphony." Through the budding spring, the blossoming sum- mer, the ripening and glowing autumn, and the in- vigorating, white-robed winter, gifts of true worth are everywhere. To learn to see them every day — the gifts of human friendliness and the gifts of nature's God — is to learn to celebrate Christmas in reality. Not on one day alone, but all the time, can the Christ- mas spirit penetrate and enrich life with the joy which is incalculable in terms of tangible gifts. In return to the Giver of all gifts may we give apprecia- tion, proven in hours of fine and purposeful living, and directed toward ends of which He would be proud. — E. T. B.