Yes, it may be more blessed to give than to receive but
receiving takes something special. Both have their merits according to
Steinbeck.
Don
Happy holidays no matter which end you are on.
In today's encore excerpt, John Steinbeck eulogizes
his recently deceased friend, Ed Ricketts, who was the real-life model
for the character Doc in Steinbeck's novel, Cannery Row:
"I have tried to isolate and inspect the great talent that was in Ed
Ricketts, that made him so loved and needed and makes him so missed now
that he is dead. Certainly he was an interesting and charming man, but
there was some other quality that far exceeded these. I have thought
that it might be his ability to receive, to receive anything from
anyone, to receive gracefully and thankfully, and to make the gift seem
very fine. Because of this everyone felt good in giving to Ed--a
present, a thought, anything.
"Perhaps the most overrated virtue in our list of shoddy virtues is
that of giving. Giving builds up the ego of the giver, makes him
superior and higher and larger than the receiver. ... It is so easy to
give, so exquisitely rewarding. Receiving, on the other hand, if it is
well-done, requires a fine balance of self-knowledge and kindness. It
requires humility and tact and great understanding of relationships. In
receiving, you cannot appear, even to yourself, better or stronger or
wiser than the giver, although you must be wiser to do it well.
"It requires self-esteem to receive--not self-love but just a pleasant
acquaintance and liking for oneself."
John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez, Appendix,
"About Ed Ricketts", Penguin Books, 1951, pp. 272-3.
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