11 April 2011

Gifts want completion

As marketing is to market transaction so completion is to gift exchange. 
Gifts want completion. They want the reciprocation, the answer to the offer. To complete is not to terminate. Indeed, to complete is almost the opposite of to terminate. To complete is to conclude for the sake of continuing. To complete is to prepare to enter into the next phase or stage or round. Gifts complete a round but at the same time demand the next round, and thereby insist relationship into the system. Without (a) availability, (b) recognition and appreciation, and then (c) reciprocation, the gifts cannot flow. 
The thanks and gratitude a gift engenders is a precursor to sanctification and consecration. The sabbath day is the day in which completion-work (kol-melakha) is suspended.

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