Over Christmas, we discussed that if something is asked for, it is not truly a gift. A gift is something willingly given without the desire of receiving something back. It's funny that we pride ourselves with the most warm Christmas season in the world yet we practice gift giving in a completely peculiar way.
It's always rubbed me the wrong way how we have the saying "palibre naman" or "pa-blowout". I know not everyone is guilty of this but I have noticed it happening around me quite a lot. During people's birthdays, instead of thinking of what to do for them, we bombard them that with those sayings. We turn their special days into something that we can benefit from. Even someone becomes quite fortunate with something, we immediately ask for a treat. '
I've been very fortunate that I had one of the most amazing marketing professor. Our prof would actually treat us to food sometimes during class. It got to a point where people expected it and sadly towards the end of the semester people would actually chime "palibre" during class and I would just cringe.
In my JEEP, even if I had prior intentions of bringing Jollibee already for my co-workers, the fact that the other Ateneo student treated them was brought up changed my viewpoint on my libre. Instead of just a celebratory lunch, it turned into "Oh no. I think they expect me to treat them and they will be disappointed if I don't."
And even classmates pointed out that they've experienced times when they give gifts to their friends and their friends were sad because "now they had to give something back". Even if it's just a cultural thing and we are only half joking most of the time, our whole concept of libre and gift giving is getting more warped. We are sometimes guilty of making things more impersonal. A Christmas gift becomes a burden to return. We no longer see it as a gesture or see it as a sign of love from the giver. A free lunch becomes a request or a cultural obligation and no longer a token of gratitude. Other peoples' birthdays make us wonder what they could do for us and not the other way around. Instead of the experience being great for the people sharing it, we are sometimes guilty of forgetting about the other with the experience. We centralize the experience and it no longer is an ex-perience as it's all internal.
It's our culture but it is just odd to me.
