True or False? It is better to give than to receive!

For the third year in a row, I decided to celebrate the winter holiday season by sharing gifts with members of the public.  I arrived at the Peekskill Coffee House on a Saturday morning in mid-December with approximately 100 decorated boxes and bags, each containing a gift item.  People who were willing to sit and chat with me about the relative merits of giving and receiving were invited to select a gift  — to keep or to give away!

I began by asking each participant to remember a particular situation in which receiving or giving a gift had impacted his or her life in some way.  I was so moved by the stories that people decided to share with me!  In the end, I determined that about 75% of the people I encountered that day had concluded that giving is more powerful than receiving.

This project is part of my long-term, on-going series of interactive performances, all of which involve one-on-one conversations.  My goal is to remind people of the beauty and power of face-to-face interaction.  In other words, I want people to put down their “devices with screens” and communicate directly with others!