It’s that time of the year again!

Time to try to figure out what to buy everyone for Christmas – er, I mean, “The Holidays.”

Naturally, techie toys are highly valued gifts.

But ya know, I have a better idea: Don’t buy anything!

Instead, give the gift that’s becoming increasingly rare in this day and age: yourself. Preferably with a bow on your head.

Me, me, me?

No, not quite.

You’re not giving of yourself because you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread. You aren’t, and neither am I.

You’re giving yourself in the sense of returning to what the holidays are supposed to mean.

Or maybe what they should mean, but have never truly meant…

What do I mean?

Well, first of all, turn off your friggin smartphone. Turn off your tablet. Get away from the screens.

The world will not end if you don’t post 2,000 photos of your perfect Christmas Dinner to Instagram. Besides, you aren’t trying to convince others that you had a perfect holiday – you’re trying to convince yourself.

Either that, or you’re trying to outshine everyone else. No matter how you look at it, that isn’t the spirit of the season.

Instead, sit by a nice fire. Talk to friends and family. Enjoy time together – without the distraction of a ringing phone, a pinging instant messenger, yadda yadda yadda.

Heck, sing some Christmas carols!!

But wait, what about gifts?

Gifts are nice. But we all know what happens each year. You rack your brain trying to figure out the perfect thing to give to the perfect person.

And then you totally forget that the real thing that people want from you is, well, you. I mean, they decided they rather like you. Otherwise, they wouldn’t want you hanging around.

And then there’s the problem of one party getting the other something “nicer” than that which was received, which always makes one (or both) parties feel bad.

Do you really need to get into even more debt to buy other people a bunch of stuff they don’t need so that they’ll also get further into debt to buy you stuff you don’t need, and all just so that you can pretend you’re ‘connecting’ even though you’re not?

For crying out loud, just give each other a hug and really talk about your lives, your feelings, your successes, your failures, etc.

The whole gift thing is kind of ridiculous when you think about it.

But wait, I can’t talk to anyone about anything these days…

You’re absolutely correct. And that’s a big part of the problem.

In order to avoid offending anyone’s political, social, or cultural beliefs, our dialog has become barren and sterilized. In fact, we can’t even call it ‘dialog’ anymore.

There are some people with whom you most likely simply refuse to communicate. For those with whom you will speak, it’s frequently a very guarded conversation.

Gone are the days when we can, “agree to disagree” about anything. It’s always My Way, or the Highway! Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like, “You’re either with us, or you’re against us.”

That unfortunate situation is the very definition of division. It is the epitome of irrationality. It is the apex of a society that emphasizes “me” over anything and everything else.

I should probably note here that after this particular type of apex, there’s usually a collapse of epic proportions – if history is any indication, anyway.

So yeah, do something REALLY different…

Completely forget about the best techie toys to give or get this holiday season. You don’t need them, and neither does anyone else. Not really, anyway.

Be kind. Be open-minded. Share without fear, and listen without judgment.

Stop holding grudges that do nothing but destroy you a little each day while the other side simply carries on. Meanwhile, the other side is also holding a grudge that has very little to do with you.

How does that make any sense? It doesn’t.

Remember that everyone else is probably feeling exactly what you’re feeling. That means they’re also a bit worked up about this or that.

It doesn’t matter that you’re on opposite sides of the spectrum. It’s all just the game of life, and the winner isn’t the one who can crush and destroy the opposition.

The winner is the one who can rise above it all, remember that we are all only human, and learn to truly GIVE.

Besides, when we shuffle off this mortal coil, the only “toys” we take with us are the ones that relate to knowledge and experience gained from living, loving, and learning. Or not…

Either way, you won’t find any of that on sale at Amazon.