The Smell of a Burning Clutch

Gifts are usually affiliated with Christmas, and exchanges, but this is sin to Emerson. Emerson believes that gifts should be a part of one’s self. This means that you can’t just go out and buy something for someone, that isn’t a true gift. According to Emerson, a true gift is the sheepherder’s lamb, or the painter’s picture, or the poet’s poem, not an Xbox 360, unfortunately. The gifts should be given willingly, and not by force or out of obligation, so as one can tell, Emerson was definitely the Scrooge of Christmas time, disgusted by the fake gifts that people give to one another. Emerson goes on to say that rings and jewels are apologies for gifts, or that they are false, and that the giver hasn’t given the appropriate amount of time for the gift, thus expensive gifts such as these are fake, no matter how expensive they are.

I was encouraged to give an “Emersonian gift”, and as we talked about it more and more in class, I decided to go on and execute it. Although it’s not a pair of Gucci shoes, I gave a true Emersonian gift to my twenty-five year old cousin. I set aside a whole Saturday in an empty Albertsons parking lot with him, in my 1989 BMW 325i 5 speed, teaching him how to drive manual. He was slow to learn, but after a while, he finally got the hang of it, and after 3 hours in the parking lot, and countless amount of stalls and profane words, he was able to drive stick. People may look at that day as a “waste”, but according to Emerson, I gave a part of my self, and dedicated my whole Saturday to him, to teaching him that I enjoy, but my clutch doesn’t, to teaching him something that his father couldn’t teach him ten years ago, to teach him that he is able to drive any car now, not just a crappy slush box.

I though that an Emersonian gift was total bull, and that it could never be better than Call of Duty 5, but after seeing him accelerate from neutral without exceeding 3000RPM, and seeing that huge grin on his face, I could tell that he appreciated what I had done for him. Now he better give me an extremely NON Emersonian gift, a brand new clutch, for I need it, and demand it.