O. Henry: The Gift of the Magi. The saddest Christmas story of all time?

[GammaGlobulin]

Dear Brethren,

 

If one ever wished to read a Christmas story that is almost guaranteed to have us crying in our beer, then O. Henry takes the cake, just for writing the saddest one of all.

 

And, if you wish to know the full meaning of pathos, then read this one and weep.

 

And, the Three Wise Men, including O. Henry, came to Pete's Tavern, where The Gift of the Magi...was written...or so...

It was written.

 

Every time I read this story, I cannot help but shed a tear in my beer, for this sad pair, so poor, and yet so content in their poverty.

 

I am crying now, just thinking about the last time I read this account, written by O. Henry. O.Henry is not one of my favorite authors.  I would not even consider him to be an author, so much as he is just a cheap tear-jerker.

 

 

Still, leading up to Christmas, 2024, I think, considering recent world events, his story of the Magi might be less unpleasant than other things happening today.

 

So then, why not read it once again, and shed a tear, since the cathartic value in doing so, just might do us some good, and probably so little else will.

 

How sad are the events of this year, anyway?  We could count the ways, but we should not, just before decking our halls with holly, lest our frivolity might become dampened.

 

O. Henry, apparently, wrote his famous story at some tavern in NYC. And since that time, school children have been plagued and depressed by the reading of it.

 

Christmas is not a very happy time, when you really look closely at it. Christmas is a time of sweet sorrow, mixed emotions, and dipsomania in order to cope with the manic-depression of the season.

 

I never liked Christmas, even though I was forced to participate when young. Thankfully, after first arriving in Asia, I found salvation in the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which has always been a happy time for both me and all my many Chinese Friends.

 

Passover and Seder, when I was young, was also a very happy time, at least in my neighborhood.  So, I guess I am not like most other Gentiles.

 

O. Henry? Some guys like him. Maybe I will try to re-read his stories, this Christmas holiday, with new understanding, now that I am older.

 

What do people really SEE in this Christmas holiday….because I do not know.  Christmas has always been stressful for me, and almost everyone I have ever known.

 

Maybe it will be better, this year, and I hope so.

 

But, I doubt it.

 

What’s to be said for Christmas, that is good?

Well.

We know that Christmas ‘tis the season to be jolly.

This is about all I know of Christmas, other than Christmas spirit, which comes in a bottle for many, about this time of year.

 

What is your favorite spirit, on Christmas Eve….anyway?

 

When I had the inclination to waste money on spirits, during the Christmas season, I would have chosen some type of Irish whisky, and something expensive.

 

And, after reading the entire story, The Gift of the Magi, I guess almost anyone would need an entire bottle of it.

 

Do you enjoy O. Henry, on a Christmas Eve?

 

More power to you, then.

 

Please, don’t cry.

 

Gamma

 

Note:  Let’s all add a SAD emoji, in remembrance of Christmases gone by.

 

Note2:  Emphasizing the Positive, though, we know that all good things will soon pass, and after the New Year, these holidays will be, thankfully, behind us…until next year….

 

Note3.  At the very least, and which is no small thing, I am just so extremely grateful to be living in Thailand, and Asia, where, this year, I have not heard even one Christmas carol…and I thank my lucky stars of Bethlehem!!!!  Big Time, as Trump might say!

 

Note4: I hate world poverty.  After the Christmas holiday is over with,and before we travel with Musk to Mars, we really must stamp it out.

 

Note5:  Fortunately for those now in Thailand, there will be neither Jingle-Bells nor sadness.  Thank you, Thailand!  Thailand is always good to us Farang, every Christmas.

[Gsxrnz]

Bah humbug. 

[GammaGlobulin]

15 minutes ago, Gsxrnz said:

Bah humbug. 

 

Are you saying that O. Henry is purely humbug?

 

A very weird writer, with a parasol.

 

I never enjoyed his stories when I was young.

 

Maybe I will read them, once more, now that I am very old.

 

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

39 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

A very weird writer, with a parasol.

That's not a parasol, it's a Chinese umbrella. Get a grip.

[GammaGlobulin]

15 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That's not a parasol, it's a Chinese umbrella. Get a grip.

 

As far as I know, you got two choices....

 

a.  YuSan (umbrella)

b. YangSan (parasol)

 

I think it's a parasol.

A YangSan....

 

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That's not a parasol, it's a Chinese umbrella. Get a grip.

 

I defy you to tell me that any 6th-grader can read and appreciate this Magi story written by O. Henry.

Simply impossible.

 

So then, why do teachers assign this story for reading in the 6th grade?

 

Such a travesty and a waste of a good story.

 

Just as youth is wasted on the young; then so is the Magi wasted on 6th-graders.

 

 

[mikebike]

If you were a reader, the Gift was an easy read, and easily understandable in grade 6. How stupid do you think 6th graders are? 🤔🤷

[GammaGlobulin]

5 hours ago, mikebike said:

If you were a reader, the Gift was an easy read, and easily understandable in grade 6. How stupid do you think 6th graders are? 🤔🤷

 

Yet another rhetorical question, is it?

 

 

[mikebike]

23 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Yet another rhetorical question, is it?

 

 

Wasn't your entire OP rhetorical?

[barmatt]

I want to know where the accommodation of $8 per week can be found?

[jcmj]

There are Christmas songs playing on the radio and in most shopping centers with Big Christmas trees and decorations all over Pattaya. Plus all of the people dressing up like Santa and especially his wife. The Thais have really gotten into it in the past 10+ years here in Pattaya at least. Either you’re living in the sticks or not getting out of your home. 

[kingstonkid]

On 12/23/2024 at 7:55 AM, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Are you saying that O. Henry is purely humbug?

 

A very weird writer, with a parasol.

 

I never enjoyed his stories when I was young.

 

Maybe I will read them, once more, now that I am very old.

 

 

 

 

 

No I am not saying O Henry was humbug

 

However I thinkyou need to re read teh story especially the last part.  The meaning is lost on you.  

 

Christmas is a time for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We usually do that for a couple  of hours in church.

It is a time to remember that this man was born to spread the word of God and possibly ALLAH.

Buddhists believe  that Bhudda did this as well.

 

It is a time for families to get together and enjoy a meal as best they can afford.  Much the same as people do at Chinese New year, Ramadan, and Hannaka.

 

It is also a time for children.  To me, as a child, there was nothing more enjoyable than waking up and going out to see what was under the tree that Santa, my parents, and my grandmother had bought me.  Then after opening all the presents heading out to play hockey with my friends using the new sticks [ucks and skates that we usually got.  Talking about the hauls we made out with.

 

As an adult Christmas was always abut giving to others.  The look on a family when we would drop off a Christmas hamper with a turkey and stuff so that a deserving family would have a great Christmas.  

 

As a parent, it was the look on my daughter's face when she opened her presents and found things that she thought she would not get.  Then going to her grandparents to celebrate Christmas with her aunts uncle, and cousins,

 

Here in Thailand, it is the looks that I got and the enjoyment that kids had when they woke up and found a present on the fence.  The looks were not in anger but in joy, and they were trying to convince me to admit that I did it.

 

To celebrate Christmas is easy.  It shouldn't matter the price of the gift but that they gift was given and he meaning behind it.  For many there are reasons that Christmas may not be as bright BUT I will guarantee that if you look at the good in people you will see the blessing of christmas

 

 

 

[sandyf]

On 12/24/2024 at 7:18 AM, jcmj said:

There are Christmas songs playing on the radio and in most shopping centers with Big Christmas trees and decorations all over Pattaya. Plus all of the people dressing up like Santa and especially his wife. The Thais have really gotten into it in the past 10+ years here in Pattaya at least. Either you’re living in the sticks or not getting out of your home. 

It is each to their own. 

In 2011 my wife and I were down in Pattaya for Christmas Eve, about 7am on Christmas morning she got a call that her father had collapsed and been taken to hospital. By the time we got back to Chonburi he had been pronounced brain dead.

The interment was on New Year's Day.

 

[Yagoda]

On 12/23/2024 at 9:51 AM, mikebike said:

If you were a reader, the Gift was an easy read, and easily understandable in grade 6. How stupid do you think 6th graders are? 🤔🤷

We read Moby Dick in 6th grade.

[GammaGlobulin]

4 hours ago, Yagoda said:

We read Moby Dick in 6th grade.

 

And,  presumably, you also understood the many allusions in that tome?

[Crossy]

Did I mis-read the OP? 

 

The gift of Maggi!

 

[GammaGlobulin]

42 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Did I mis-read the OP? 

 

The gift of Maggi!

 

 

Yes.

You did.

 

You must have the "Double G" on the brain, or something.

Not sure why, though....

 

You want I should post another DIY Topic?

 

(My final Christmas Gift to you, before the year, 2024, is out.)

 

 

[Crossy]

3 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

You must have the "Double G" on the brain, or something.

 

Argh. I hadn't actually made that connection, at least not consciously! 

 

Now I won't be able to un-think it! I'll get another glass of white!

[GammaGlobulin]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Argh. I hadn't actually made that connection, at least not consciously! 

 

Now I won't be able to un-think it! I'll get another glass of white!

 

Right, next time you are in the shop, and see the Maggi Brand, forever and for ever, you will always think of the most annoying content creator on the DIY Forum.

 

This is my gift to you.