Christmas gifts for Duterte, Trump, Putin, Xi, Leni, Bongbong, Bato, GMA & Erap

What do you give someone for Christmas if he or she already has or can afford everything? The government of Singapore led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Dec. 16 gave President Rody R. Duterte a unique and wonderful early Christmas gift, naming an orchid in his honor at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

That orchid name was a great and beautiful gift. However, my younger sister Marilou and I discovered another unique gift years ago when we just finished schooling and our widowed teacher mom just passed away.

Although we lived in a simple and small apartment in Quezon City, mom for years kept a safe inside a cabinet under the staircase — a steel safe of about two feet or three feet in height and was one of the few things left from the sawmill business which closed when our dad got sick and died. When mom herself passed away, my sister and I got the keys and used the combinations listed in mom’s notebook to finally open that steel safe. Apart from some brown envelopes with papers and a few simple pieces jewelry, there was still a smaller steel box in the inner core of the safe.

When we opened that small steel box inside that steel safe, we discovered what our late mom had for past 18 years kept as her most valuable possessions: a brown envelope containing hand-scribbled and hand-drawn Christmas cards on folded white bond papers, which my sister and I had given since our first grade, plus our other Christmas cards through the years.

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8 Great Gifts That Money Can’t Buy

Again to my question: What to give people who apparently have or can afford everything they want like President Duterte, the leaders of the Philippines’ two new friends China President Xi Jinping and Russia President Vadimir Putin, US President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President Leni Robredo and her rival former Senator Bongbong Marcos, PNP Chief Gen. Bato de la Rosa, two ex-presidents who are back in politics, Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada?

Here are my gifts to them, which money cannot buy but are most valuable:

• Good health — This priceless gift and real wealth of good physical and mental health. Let us eat healthy, drink healthy, do some regular exercise, sleep well, stress less.

• Time — Whether rich or poor, we have only 86,400 seconds or 24 hours per day, so let us enjoy the gift of more time for ourselves — unwind, rest, time to do nothing once in a while, take a real vacation with no emails, time to read (or write) a book, time for sports or gardening or hobbies, etc. By the way, one of the most valuable gifts we can give others is our time for them.

• Peace of mind — I give you my wish for spiritual and emotional peace of mind or inner peace as a gift. Be able to step away from this oft-stressful and chaotic world, enjoy tranquility.

• The joy of family — This holiday season centers mainly on the family, especially on kids. My gift to you is for a happy family life. Let us also remember, honor and pray for the millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who toil in far-flung places in order to support their families, also the migrant workers of many other countries. Most of them will be away from their loved ones this Christmas and New Year. By the way, today, Dec. 18, is also International Migrants Day.

• Real friends — I wish President Duterte, VP Leni and other leaders, also you dear readers, the gift of real and good friends — not fair-weather friends who’d swarm around you at the height of your success or power, not the hundreds or thousands of Facebook “friends,” but real friends.

• Happiness — Of course, one can buy chocolates, cakes, a foot massage, a vacation or other stuff to be happy, but my wish for all is the priceless gift of genuine happiness from enjoying many simple joys of life and from a positive attitude towards all things.

• Sense of fulfillment — This “sense of fulfillment” doesn’t refer to the trophy for Best Actress or Best Actor in the Dec. 29 awarding ceremony of the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), not an honorary doctorate degree or other kinds of awards, but a sense of fulfilling our dreams, our passions or doing what we consider fun and meaningful.

• Love and respect — Last but not the least, I send my gift of genuine respect, that we all can enjoy this from friends or even (more so) foes, also the capacity to love and to be loved.

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