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Charles P. Muganiwa Features Correspondent
A young man bought a fashionable Biscayne vehicle and divorced his wife for young women. He bought four shops and filled them with goods as the wives became the managers. He led a so-called high life of drinking, smoking and spending. No accounting was done and it was not long that things fell apart.
He went broke, returned to his first wife as a destitute before he died. This was the end of a gift of winning the State Lottery of £25 000 in the 1960s. The gift became too hot to handle.

So many instances can be cited that gifts have been given with varying results. One day Nicky was finishing eating lunch in one of the restaurants and a well dressed young man came up to Nicky asking the latter to eat the left-over. Nicky waited by, just to see how it went. The young man gobbled it quickly, in no time.

Nicky then asked the waiter to bring a full plate of sadza. The man sweated and finished it off, leaving the plate squeaky clean. A few days later, Nicky saw the same man hanging around the same café hunting for another victim.

If Nicky had asked him to come and clean his car which was nearby instead of giving him food, it would have been a win-win situation and a lesson on how the man could earn a living. Nicky felt abused.

Behind one of the supermarkets in Harare was a vagrant who stayed by the rubbish bins. He lit a fire every morning and evening for cooking and warming himself. He also loitered around that place as if protecting the bins. On seeing him, a young man was so touched and he bought some sadza for him with large pieces of meat. The vagrant put the parcel into a plastic bag and threw it into the rubbish bin.
The young man was angry and demanding his cash back from the vagrant. He could not hold back his anger. On the other hand, the vagrant used the rubbish bin to store his food and other items. He would remove the staff on specific days when the bins were cleared. The young giver remained bitter.

In one wedding, gifts played a very low key. As people entered the hall, the ushers took various gifts away and put them in a room. The couple felt that announcing gifts was going to embarrass some of their guests who did not have much to give. After all, they were satisfied with what God had already provided them in life. Some people accepted the rationale as others felt let down on a day to show off.

Alternatively, on another wedding, a list of names for candidates to be invited to come and eat at the high table was being compiled as the gifts were being announced in order to make sure that those who gave well were not omitted.

One young American daughter of a rich family ran away from home in the Eastern to the Western Coast because she was tired of the strict lifestyle she had endured from her parents. She got broke. She avoided anybody who looked rich, hence she asked for help from a young man playing his guitar along the street.

The young man asked her to wait for a while. He continued playing his guitar as some well-wishers dropped some coins for him. At some point the young man just scooped all the coins he had collected and gave them to the young lady. For the young man he knew hard life particularly on the street and he was not bothered to help a fellow struggler.

The young lady was struck by someone who could just help her without looking up to neither admire her beautiful face nor ask for her name and much more importantly wait to be thanked, as in rich world circles. She was so bought over by this behaviour that she eventually married the guitarist.

In a church service the preacher was emphatic on the need for believers to give to God part of their incomes as a logical manner to thank him in return for the good lives that they enjoyed. On this day, the pastor was so eloquent that the gift tray overflowed with gifts to God. One lady even doubled her gift to a hundred dollars.

If God gave percentage credits for gifts made in his name, what portion will be for the eloquent pastor/preacher who was also going to receive and manage the funds on behalf of the church as opposed to the percentage for the lady? Did the two ever have any disposition to give except for rewards, especially in heaven?

Capitalists known as business community are well known for their public relations generosity. The gifts come in various ways and packages for the indirect benefit of business.

Many times business organisations build schools for communities, pay school fees for deserving children, feed and clothe the elderly as part of their social responsibilities. Understandably, there is always a rule of giving something for something, even in the long term.
The donor community also comes up with a plethora of projects intended to improve the lives of the people. Often times the communities participate in the realisation of projects some of which have definitely changed the lives of very many people. Some communities owe more to the donor community than their governments for their development.

As a consequence, some donors often gamble with this relationship on communities by influencing the political opinions of the latter, something for something.

In politics gifts are both incentives to potential voters and disincentives to opponents and the game is openly played. Debate should be around a gift as a spontaneous act deriving from the heart. A gift has reciprocal value between the giver and the receiver.

There are so many exchange values to consider many of which are not so apparent and not necessarily in monetary terms. Most gifts are not neutral.

They often bear religious, business, political or social slant in their benefits. How gifts finally work out in practice attract serious debate.
For example, as a child, the Christian upbringing required children to refuse receiving gifts, and if a child was finally cornered to accept a gift, he/she was supposed to thank profusely. This was done to force children to accept leaving within the means available instead of turning them into beggars from an early age.

However, the point here is what is the gist of giving? Who is helped? Is there no time that the giver is helped more than the given especially when it may create an addiction in the latter?

Surely, the giver has a purpose, an ulterior motive, often a very selfish one, and should thank the recipient for accepting the gift in accomplishing it. In this regard the giver often has keen interest in how the gift is finally used. More interesting, is it in the giver to give or it is fulfilling what the pastor said?

In which case, God shares the blessings between the two, in some proportion. Hence, it is so much for the giver who is burning to be seen giving and reaping the earthly reward and a heavenly promise.