Lost in translation

Are gift cards nothing more than crutches for the unimaginative? One might think so, but I beg to differ Dear Reader. I recently received a thank you card for the gift card I had given a friend for her wedding. I admit that I had initially opted for the gift card because I didn't really want to go on a scavenger hunt at Target looking for fluorescent rubber spatulas or whatever else was on the registry list. (Is that redundant?) The gift card was on the list. Plus, as I recall, there was a game on television that I had an interest in seeing, so my son, who was going to the mall anyway, could simply pick up a $20 gift card for me. (I'll come clean: there are not many, if any, baseball games I do not have an interest in seeing.) I rationalized my decision. To go with the gift card, not about watching the game. I am not in denial about my love of baseball. I know I have a problem. Knowing that most of the items on the registry were in the $20-$50 range, I considered that the newlyweds would certainly get more than one gift card, and could combine them to buy something really nice. And, it was on the list. Maybe people, not necessarily my friend, but other people, put gift cards on wish lists hoping for gift cards, so they don't get stuff they really don't want. I am remembering a pair of slippers I received for Christmas when I was a kid. Everybody has been the recipient of something unwanted. And everybody has given something to somebody that was unwanted. Why not simply ask for cash? Well, that Dear Reader, would be crass. Gift cards, it seems to me, prevent hurt feelings. The giving and receiving of gifts should not be a stressful event. Now, go to your German-English dictionary and look up "Gift." In the German section, not the English. We already know what gift means in English. At least we know the literal meaning, if not the symbolic. OK, so you don't have your German-English dictionary close at hand? I'll give it to you. Das Gift means poison, toxin, virus, venom; or, colloquially, Der Gift, means virulence, malice, fury. English is a Germanic language, and we can see that in this instance. Clearly.