When a friend found out the painting she’d given me had made its way to a charity store, I wanted to dig a hole in the earth
As the recipient of an unwanted gift, is it necessary to pretend you like it? This is what most of us are trained to do as children; for some it was our first experience of being instructed to lie.
“Thank you,” I might have said to my grandmother, “for this frilly, itchy lace-trimmed dress identical to the one you gave my sister. I love it.”
After lying through your teeth comes the dilemma of what to do with the unwanted itchy dress/humping turtles salt and pepper shakers/patchouli-scented candle. Or the perfume that reminds you of cat urine, the vase shaped like a brick, the hat that looks like an unrolled condom. Do you regift it? Give it to the op shop? What would happen if the giver were to discover this?
I was given a painting by a generous friend – painted by an artist she knew. She asked me what I thought of it and I said it was beautiful. It was – it is – but it wasn’t something I’d have chosen for myself. It wasn’t my style and I didn’t know how to say this politely.
