Pink Presents

Here is the box of birthday surprises that just arrived from my daughter Emily...

See, the wonderful thing about having preferences is that people can indulge them for you.

If I hadn't finally figured out that deep down, all these many years, I have secretly loved the color pink best of all but never admitted it even to myself because I thought something must be wrong with liking pink, that it wasn't vigorous enough, and that I ought to prefer a more strenuous color, if I hadn't finally got past all that, I say--then this marvelous box of surprises could never have been assembled with such ingenuity to strike me pink.

My daughter knows me very well. She knows I love my bath products--see the Pink Paradise Bath Fizzies? Notice the Lavender and Chamomile Johnson's? (Originally that product was called "Fussy Baby Bath" and we got it when Ben was little. Then we got it for me and called it "Fussy Mommy Bath." I haven't had any for a long time.)

She knows that I love both New York and the New Yorker magazine, and here is a subscription to it. And I collect bookmarks, and though  you can't see it here, there's a bookmark in the box and it's pretty and pink. And there's even a little pink chapstick tube, because I must have one in my pocket at all times, and a little baby lotion bottle, which I always travel with.

She knows I love fancy socks, and pretty make-up bags, and chocolates, and yes--even that toothpaste is a treat, because it's my absolute favorite but I usually cop out and buy a cheaper kind. And she knows I love hand-made things, so she cut out flowers and laid them on top of the tissue paper, where I saw them first of all.

Emily was always a very generous child who loved giving gifts. At Christmas time, she'd want me to have more presents under the tree, so she'd go around the house finding little doodads and wrapping them up for me. On Christmas morning I'd open her presents and find my own pincushion or some little framed pictures that had been around the house for years and say "Oh, this is so nice, Emily! It's just what I wanted!" She'd be smiling with her whole little body, she was so pleased with it all. And the little doodads she "gave" me became new and special to me after that.

At 23, Emily has a much more profound understanding of shopping than she did at age 5, but her joy and affection in gift-giving are as charming and sound as ever. It still moves her mother to exclaim, "Oh this is so nice, Emily! It's just what I wanted!"