“The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.”
— Pierre Corneille, Le Menteur
This is the first topic taken from The Daily Post that I’ll have blogged about: “What is the best gift you’ve ever received?”
Frankly, the only reason I decided to weigh in on the subject is that it’s such an easy question for me to answer.
It was Christmas Day 2008 and I was speaking to my brother on the phone when he asked what I thought of the cufflinks he got me. I actually hadn’t seen the little box under the tree before so I unwrapped my gift there and then thinking that the surprise had been somewhat diluted by knowing what was inside. How wrong I was.
I found myself holding an England’s Glory matchbox instead of the gift box I was expecting. I slid it open and emptied the contents into my hand while my brother explained what it was exactly that I was looking at: the shrapnel from a bullet which had narrowly missed his head in Afghanistan that he’d dug out of the wall with his bayonet and had made into cufflinks for me.