Family gift

Lopez ( Gift and the Unity of Being ) ends a discussion of the home as a paradigm of giving with this lovely summary:

“In spousal love, the husband gives himself and, in giving himself, receives his wife, who, in receiving the husband, gives herself. Through the parents, the child is given to himself, and in so doing they accept him as given to them. The child receives the gift of himself in giving himself to the parents and others. Since the original evidence of being given to oneself remains the permanent determination of the gift that the person one is, one does not grow out of childhood. To be sure, infancy fades away in adolescence, which disappears into adulthood. Yet childhood, as indicating the identity of the gift that acknowledges the priority of its being given, grows ever deeper. Leaping out of childhood not only represents a denial of the gift but also calls forth its opposite: chaotic being” (34).