Holiday gift shopping is in full swing and I have had a number of relatives ask me what I would like to get. I always say, please don’t give me more stuff. Stuff basically includes any and all physical objects (excluding books). I have long ago crossed the threshold of having too much stuff and find myself spending more and more time getting rid of stuff to unclutter my life. Paul Graham has a longer post describing his similar issues with stuff.
Susan rightly points out that just saying what I don’t want is not exactly helping those looking to get a present. Personally, I would rather not have any presents, but maybe that’s a bit too Grinch-like. So here are some ideas that are not stuff. Tickets for movies, concerts, theater. Coupons for piano or cooking lessons. Instruction in tennis, skiing or sailing. Massage therapy (after the ski lessons). Dinner reservations (with friends). And per the above exemption: books and of course subscriptions to books from my to-read list at DailyLit.
What would make me even happier though would be donations to causes that I care about. To make that easier, I have picked out three different ones.
The first is water purification. Pur (the water filter folks) have developed a package that can turn almost any water into drinkable water in about 20 minutes. The economics are amazing. Less than $10 is enough to supply a child with clean drinking water for a whole year and $30 does so for an entire family.
The second are several projects on the wonderful DonorsChoose.org, where I have set up a giving page to support math and computer science projects. Unlike the anonymous donation mechanisms, DonorsChoose routes money directly to specific projects. You can also see these projects in the sidbar of my blog.
The third is slightly eclectic and not (yet) tax deductible. Europe already has a cap and trading system for CO2 emissions. The beauty of such a system is that there are a limited number of credits and anyone can buy them. Sandbag in the UK makes it easy for individuals to buy credits and thus withdraw them from the system, which results in a direct reduction in the amount of pollution that industry can create.
Now that I have written my list (and checked it twice), I just need to make sure that everyone in my family reads this post!
