The Search for Love

The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd could also be named The Secret Search for Love (although the search was not secret, it is to rhyme with the original). The young teenager Lily Owens is looking for love, which she is not getting at home. Her father treats her like a drill master and punishes her at his every whim. She is a growing girl, and the absence of her mother in her life creats a void that is hard to fill.

It is not only the absence of her mother, but how she became absent that weighs on Lily. It was possible that her mother died because of Lily, when she picked up a gun which went off accidentally and killed the mother.

And all her life until she spent months with the Boatwright sisters, Lily kept on thinking that she was never loved - neither by her father, nor her mother. She was without love in this entire world. Except Rosaleen, the maid, no one loved her.

To save Rosaleen from a hard life in jail, therefore Lily takes a drastic step. She sneaks Rosaleden out of jail, and then runs away from home with her. She had always wanted to find more about her mother, as her father had nothing to do with her. He would not even hear Lily mention her, so Lily had no other way but to find about her mother on her own.

Running away from home with Rosaleen was a drastic step, fraught with danger of being caught by police or found out by her father and then put back in the house. But the need to know more about her mother was so overwhelming, Lily went ahead and started the search.

Where she was offered a roof to stay, the pink house where the Boatwright sisters lived tending to bees and selling honey, Lily found love. She discovered love in the youthfulness of Zach, and in the sisters August, June and May. In this same house she found out the truth about her mother. That her mother loved her. That she was not an unloved child.

And Lily continued to stay on here, even after her father found her out.

Buying Gifts for Christmas

Ever since I've joined this holiday sales job, I've been acutely bitten by the gift buying bug. Maybe it is due to seeing people spend so much on gifts. They're getting stuff for their husbands, wives, granddaughters, grandsons, girlfriends, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers. Often they're buying for the home. Things like electrical appliances, kitchen tools, home furnishings, Santa paraphernalia...

There is so much stuff out there, it is mind boggling. Large department stores are slush with things that are mountain high. I'm not used to seeing so much stuff in the shops and stores earlier as I see here now. There is a wide variety and choice of goods, and dazzling displays aimed at attracting customers. On top of that, due to the slow economy, stores are also encouraging people to buy with heavy and sometimes multiple discounts.

The war of attracting customers by slashing prices and projecting higher discounts in the media is for everyone to see and make a note of. Mails and flyers arrive on the post, with coupons attached, which can be used on the dats/periods printed. So what could people do in such a scenario.

Due to the holiday season, they are obliged to look for gifts. It is not merely obligation, but also a willingness to share love through gifts. Christmas is the most significant festival for many people in the Western worl, for which people wait the whole year. With the approaching of year end, the planning and anticipation starts. It rises on the graph as December progresses, and by the third week of the month, it is at its crescendo. There is a frenzy of buying and gift wrapping.

There have been ups and downs in the economy over the decades, but people do not completely ignore such important festivals. Even with the high unemployment, the overall problems that people are facing, the slashing of budget, the stock market losses of retired people, festivals such as Christmas are unerasable from the identity of a culture and community.

Whatever may be the rewards, the hardships, people buy gifts to that they could share their love and bond as family and friends all over again. To start another new year. Until that year ends and it is time to bond again with renewed enthusiasm and buying frenzy.