The Gift of Giving

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is the Friday before Christmas, and my adult son, Jackson,
reminded me of something parents often forget this time of year.
We seem to believe at Christmas time the kids only
think about presents, boxes with their names on them, the
pure joy of getting for what they wished. He told
me he barely remembers gifts growing up, but will never

(00:20):
forget the experiences of Christmas Day, the experience of giving.
It had me thinking about a Christmas story I once
heard told by Kathy as an old lady from her
childhood long ago. The time Kathy and her father were
standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. She
remembers the line was long, seemed like they might never

(00:41):
get in. Kathy, like most children, loved the circus, the animals,
the music, the death defying feats. It filled her with
a sense of adventure. She could barely contain her excitement. Finally,
near the front of the line, she noticed just one
other family between her dad and the big tent. It
was a large family, a hard scrabble mom and dad

(01:04):
and eight children, all under twelve years old. Just by
the way they were dressed, you could tell they didn't
have a lot, but their clothes were clean and neat.
The children were well behaved, all of them standing in
line two by two behind their parents holding hands. They
were excitedly jabbering about the clowns and the animals and

(01:24):
all of the acts that they would soon be seeing
with their own eyes. For and by their excitement, Kathy
could sense that they had never been to the circus before.
Like for Kathy, it would be a highlight of their
young lives. The father and the mother were at the
head of the pack, standing proud as could be. The
mother was tightly holding her husband's hand, looking up at

(01:45):
him as if to say, you're my night in shining armor,
and for making our children so happy today, you are
a wonderful father. The ticket lady asked the man how
many tickets he wanted. He proudly responded, yes, ma'am, I'd
like it by eight children's tickets and two adult tickets.
This is the only gift that I can give my
children this year. The ticket lady smiled, and then stated

(02:09):
the price. In a moment, the man's wife let go
of his hand. Her head dropped. The man's lip began
to quiver, and then he leaned a little closer and
asked how much did you say? And the ticket lady
repeated the amount. By the look in his eyes, it
was pretty clear he didn't have enough. How was he

(02:30):
supposed to turn and tell his eight kids that he
didn't have enough? He started digging furiously through each of
his pockets, hoping to find some loose coin with which
he could negotiate. Now, seeing all of this, Kathy's dad
gently reached into his own pocket and coyly pulled out
a twenty dollar bill and then dropped it on the ground.

(02:51):
As Kathy remembers it, they weren't rich, comfortable, but hardly wealthy.
It turns out that twenty dollars was all he had.
Her father bent down, picked up the twenty dollar bill,
tapped the man on the shoulder and said, excuse me, sir,
I couldn't help, but notice this fell out of your pocket.

(03:12):
Maybe because my dad was too proud a man and
a father, he knew this man wouldn't dare ask for
a handout. Instead, he looked straight into my father's eyes,
said Kathy, took his hand in both of his, squeezed
tightly onto the twenty dollar bill, and with a tear
streaming down his cheek. He replied, thank you, thank you, sir. Well,

(03:34):
my father and I remembered. Kathy then turned around, went
back to our car and drove home. The twenty dollars
he gave away is what we had planned for our
own tickets, and although we didn't get to see the
circus that night, we both felt a joy inside that
was far greater, for in that moment, Kathy first felt
the joy of giving, which is something she did for

(03:55):
a lifetime on the silver screen. For that little girl
all those years ago, grew up to win four Academy
Awards for Best Actress. Katherine Hepburn