I was rummaging through a bunch of quotes all at the same time when this brilliant thought came to me that there are good ideas inside of ideas that we often miss for one reason or another. It might be we are focused only on one thing and we can’t see the others or, more bothersome than that we might be oblivious to ideas altogether, because of selfishness which I hope is not your plight. “What a fantastic idea”, I thought to myself as I began experimenting with my new notion. “This makes for a great economy of ideas since we never have to go too far without finding another closely linked great idea”. When you are in the business of writing compositions everyday, than economy of ides are useful as they lead us to a “goldmine” of ideas which I am always in need of for my own given type of writing. For example I though about Helen Keller’s quote for today, “Ideas without action are worthless.” From that my mind was instantly transported to anther time and place and idea that was expressed by another famous person Paul of Tarsus the persecutor of Roman Christians who changed his life and became one himself who later said, “Faith without works is dead”. Another idea that swiftly came and went was the saying, “Don’t worry about what to give, it is the thought that counts.” Now there I was stuck with these three ideas all separate in origin but all springing from the same source. After long and hard thought on these three ideas I saw them as separate subjects and useful for separate editorials; but my mind kept whispering no, there is a central theme here that should not be missed, and one useful for the holidays that are now upon us. It is buried in the idea that: “it is the thought that counts, and not what we give” if anything at all. If this is true than how is it simultaneously true that “ideas without action are worthless?” I came to the conclusion that the proverbial inherited idea that “it’s the thought that counts” is simply untrue. It has been accepted as a traditional excuse for probably hundreds of years but in the heart of hearts if “it’s the thought that always counts” than it is a thought that is measured by what we give indeed that counts. Because it does matter to us what we are given. Don’t say it doesn’t matter because you know it does. You may not want to say so but it does. I don’t mean that we as receivers should be ungrateful at the thing that was given us by let’s say a poor person, but what I am saying is more thought should have been taken before we gave a gift to someone in the first place. When a gift is truly from the heart it is known for sure, it is well done because there is certain significance and a statement is made with the gift we give. The gift does not need to be “much” in a monetary sense, but it needs to mean something to the receiver. For example, I might have shared a romantic moment with q girl under an apple tree. An apple may have been picked, or initials carved in the apple tree, and thus the apple was chosen as a gift. To the receiver that simple token meant everything in the world once it was received, but in a monetary sense it was pennies and may have seemed unimpressive to some onlookers. The expression of this given gift goes far deeper into the heart than any magnificent other gift might do. This illustrates so immensely the idea that this is what is meant by “It’s the thought that counts”. I have seen many give token gifts to others that had no special meaning and the gift goes un-noticed and un-appreciated and put in the pile of others gifts given on that child’s birthday or Christmas. You have seen it too. This season make it a point to give something if you can. It does not need to be a lot. In fact if you can’t afford it and you are going into debt to buy it than that is wrong in a lot of other ways which we can discuss in our debtors column. This Christmas buy what you can afford. Get a gift that has a lot of thought put into it. It does not need to cost you much. Your action speaks louder than words when you give a gift from the heart. Your faith with these kinds of works are not dead. Your actions, because they come from great ideas are worth much more than money can buy.