Let connection surprise you
“I came to giving young, between the The Year Without a Santa Claus, Christmas special where the elves must save the day and my beloved book about how to be a candy striper. I was two feet deep in the joy of trying to make magic happen for others before I could read.”
As I sat on Santa’s lap at the newly opened Briarwood Mall I asked proudly, not for a gift for myself, but a Mr. Coffee coffee maker for my single mother. No doubt I’d been primed by the handsome television advertisements featuring Joe Dimaggio pitching it’s glory. I wanted to surprise and delight my mother. Should Joe or old Santa himself show up to play my step father I would have made them a cup myself.
This project is a culmination of my life as a social worker and then a designer thinking about how people express themselves for better or worse. I’m curious about where individuals seek value and meaning. If it’s the thought that counts then what have people been taught to think? Who teaches us to receive? What efforts connect and which fade.
I ask everyone I meet what is the best gift they’ve given or received, not because I’m going to write the next must have list, or curate the perfect gift, but because I care about connection. These stories are here to help you connect with your own desire as much as with those you love. These stories are about seeing and being seen.
I believe this is a skill that is taught rather than a talent one is born with.