What to Give to the Intellectual Who Has Everything
If you're worrying about a gift for a brainy friend, relax. An informal survey of college professors at the University of Richmond says books and CDs should be the staples of your gift list for intellectuals. Also high on your list should be bookstore gift certificates, theatre, dance and opera tickets, and newspaper and magazine subscriptions.
All of those items are easy to purchase and relatively inexpensive.The right book, periodical or music or hot tickets, according to the survey, will make your smart friends so much happier than any tie or sweater. And it will delight them much more than a toaster or three-pack of socks.
Even better news is that books, CDs, subscriptions and tickets are easy to buy, carry and wrap. Amazon.com or your local book or music store are ready to serve you. Operators and Web sites are standing by to take gift ticket orders.
James H. Hall, Thomas Professor and chair of Richmond's philosophy department, suggests home delivery of the Saturday and Sunday New York Times: "It's a very nice and modest gift."
If the Times is not available where the recipient lives, Hall suggests the same paper's daily puzzles online, a gift certificate to Amazon.com or other online bookseller or a gift subscription to The Economist, "the best newsweekly going," Hall advises.
Craig H. Kinsley, associate professor of neuroscience and interim chairman of the psychology department, has another tack. Even though his life's work is studying the brain, he says, "Don't give us 'intellectuals' too much credit. I live to give--and get--simple things, and they don't all have to stimulate my brain."
"I will give books or music that I think my recipients will enjoy. If I laughed at something, then I like to give it to my good friends. There is a lot of potential for relaxation in what I give; that is, what will make someone think and reflect, but in a relaxing way. It is fun to try to match my friends with things that will make them smile and think at the same time."
Intellectuals also need time to pursue their intellectual interests, so practical, time-saving gifts are great as well. Emory Bogle, associate professor of history emeritus says his favorite gift is a "Zapper from Radio Shack that costs about $45. It screens and eliminates telephone solicitations."
"I don't know how it works," Bogle says, "but my life is a lot simpler from 6-9 p.m."
David D. Burhans, university chaplain, likes to be challenged. Two books he recommends are John Shelby Spong's "A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying and How a New Faith Is Being Born" and "God at 2000" (edited by Marcus Borg and Ross Mackenzie).
Both books represent thinking that is "out of the box," Burhans says. Controversial religious reformer Spong demonstrates what he sees as the limits of traditional faith and expresses an alternative of what true faith should be today.
In "God at 2000," seven leaders, including Karen Armstrong, author of the bestseller "A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam," and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu, respond to the question "How do you, personally, see God?"
To get away from work, trouble, anxieties and even too much out-of -the-box thinking, Burhans believes one should listen to music, "the transcending medium."
In light of Sept. 11, music can help healing, Burhans believes. His choice: "The Ultimate Puccini Collection," with performances by Renata Tibaldi, Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Brigit Nillson and others.
Music can provide "snippets of heaven," Burhans says, enabling us to "escape the ordinary" and glimpse eternity.
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