Amy Lu's View

As Minnesotans have been busily trying to finish up raking their leaves before a winter storm rolled in (or so I’ve been told–I don’t actually do home maintenance work. Okay, I shovelled a few steps today, it was a holiday after all) I turn my attention to the Frog and Told story, “The Surprise.”

That’s right, it’s been on hiatus, but I have NOT forgotten about or given up on my Frog and Toad Blogging Challenge! I did say there was no time limit for completing it.

In “The Surprise,” both Frog and Toad decide to suprise each other by raking the leaves in the other’s yard. They happen to go to each other’s place at the same time and successfully and secretly rake each other’s leaves into big piles. However, on their respective ways home, a big wind blows all the leaves around (they apparently missed the important step of putting the leaves in a yard waste bag).

The story ends with each of them coming home to the same leaf situation they left with, but happily thinking to themselves “My friend will be so pleased and surprised that his leaves are taken care of–I’ll deal with this mess tomorrow.”

Maybe I’m just in a mood, but this story challenges me. I get that it’s lovely that they did something nice for each other without expecting any recognition, and that doing something kind and generous for someone makes us feel good. But shouldn’t doing something for someone actually benefit the receiver?

It seems kind of selfish just to focus on how giving makes us as the giver feel.

Perhaps I’m just sensitive about stories that explore giving. I’ve always been extremely annoyed by the O. Henry story of “The Gift of the Magi.” I’ve never found the gifts the poor young couple exchange in that story to be wise or sweet but just stupid. (Super quick recap: She cuts and sells her hair to buy him a pocket watch chain, he sells his watch to buy her a comb).

For that matter, the gifts the Magi brought for Jesus don’t seem all that hot. I know, I’m not the first one to point this out, but gold, frankincense, and myrrh for an infant? I guess eventually Mary and Joseph could sell the gold for food and baby supplies.

At least Frog and Toad don’t end up any worse than they started out–since neither one of them apparently understand bag technology, they both would have had to rake their leaves twice. And they got a little variety by raking someone else lawn.

Hmmm, for all we know, Frog and Toad continue to spend their fall days in a sisyphean purgatory of constantly raking leaves into piles that get blown away (good exercise, I guess?) Or perhaps they both eventually just say “Oh, F#$k it” and let the leaves blow around as they will without worrying about bourgeoisie standards of lawn care.

My perception on gift-giving could also be skewed because I have a snarky monologue about the subject in our upcoming Christmas show (over Zoom of course), “Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas” (https://www.act-mn.org/). (Really a lovely an life-affirming show that you should see, don’t let the snarky monologue mislead you).

I might not totally agree with the wisdom of this Frog and Toad offering, or even be sure what it is, but as usual, our little amphibian friends made me think. And when I’m not feeling surly, I do agree that giving with an open heart without expecting thanks or anything in return is a blessing to us as the gift givers.

And, yard bags are totally essential.