Page 4 2024 Home For The Holidays Lincoln Daily News I will admit that I don’t watch a lot of television, but when I do, I have a fondness for sit-coms that require very little brain power to absorb. I think a lot of people feel that way, after a long day or a long week of exercising the mind and body, the last thing we want is thought provoking entertainment where we have to fi gure out who the killer is or how the cake was made. Even when I’m striving for thoughtless entertainment, though, once in a while something creeps in and sticks in the brain. That’s not a bad thing because now as I work to write an introduction for this year’s Home for the Holiday’s online magazine, I am falling back on a life lesson that I found in the most unusual place, a little show called Big Bang Theory. I’m reminded of a show where Sheldon exclaims that he is anti-gift giving. He draws the analogy you give me $50, so I have to give you the equal value or $50, and the end result is that for years and years two people will exchange the $50 annually until one person dies, and the other one is in essence the winner. I get it. That happens a lot, especially in the workplace. You give your boss a gift card, he or she gives you a check, and the cycle begins and continues throughout your career. In the show I’m thinking of though, it doesn’t quite work out that way for Sheldon. You see he learns that Penny has gotten him a Christmas present, so he must return the favor. A season of giving But he doesn’t know what she has gotten him, and has no idea how to equal the value of her gift to one from himself. His answer. He goes to the store and buys a dozen gift baskets of varying dollar values. His theory, he will receive her gift, open it, feign a tummy ache, and head to his room to choose the appropriate valued gift basket. Here’s the problem. When he opens his gift, it is a dirty napkin signed by Leonard Nemoy, one of Sheldon’s personal heroes. Then in the course of conversation he learns that Nemoy wiped his mouth on the napkin before signing it for Penny. Sheldon is overwhelmed by the thought that he now owns Leonard Nemoy’s DNA. He rushes to his bedroom and grabs all the baskets he has bought and showers Penny with his gifts. She exclaims, “Sheldon what did you do?” and he replies, “I know, it isn’t enough!” In the end though what he gives her that is truly invaluable is a hug. She is so touched she nearly cries. Let’s face it, if we know Penny, we know that she didn’t pay Leonard Nemoy for his autograph, and more than likely she didn’t pay the restaurant for the napkin. The gift she gave cost only the paper she wrapped it in, yet to Sheldon, it was beyond priceless. And while he gave her a number of gifts that more than likely cost him a few hundred dollars, the gift of a hug for her was the most valuable. Surely the life lesson here is obvious, but just Home for the Holidays Continued --
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