On Christmas Eve In 1993, my family gathered for Christmas at my grandmother's house, just like we'd been doing for as long as I could remember. I was anxious for Dad to open the gift I got him -- a copy of Rush Limbaugh's newest book See, I Told You So
. We'd been talking about the book on the phone and in letters since it had been released a month or two prior.He unwrapped my gift and a smile spread across his face. There's nothing like seeing a genuine smile from someone after you have given him or her a gift.
I unwrapped the gift he got me and that's when I understood why he was really smiling.
"Unbelievable," I said.
He bought me the same book.
It was a special moment for me. Gifts are so personal and it's not always easy to know what to get another person, but if you pay attention to his or her likes -- to the things they gravitate toward, you can almost always pick up on something.
When I unwrap a moleskine notebook, or a pack of G2 pens, or a DVD I don't have but want, or any number of other things, it tells me the other person is honed in on what I like and people who listen to you talk about the things you like genuinely care about you.
I really want to be that type of person too.
After Dad died in 2000, one of the things I wanted was the copy of the book I gave him. I found it. It now sits proudly on my bookshelf next to the copy he gave me. To make it even more special, they are both inscribed:
