Christina Norman (7:34)

Yeah.

Leanne (7:37)

All of a sudden she's gone from like, modern day Mother Teresa to Machiavelli. I am so upset that I've only had, like, 15 minutes to relish in the joy of this moment before it was cruelly ripped away from me. And part of me, I'm not gonna lie. Part of me is proud because she thought of this, you know, but the bigger part of me is. And also she's missed the big picture and she has bet on the wrong horse not understanding the Santa mother thing. So. And I think to myself, what I should do if I was a responsible mother, what I would do. When I get home, I'm going to unwrap all those presents I got for her and I'm going to give them to other children, and I'm going to take pictures of those children and I'm going to wrap those pictures in an empty box. That would teach her, right? Then maybe she'd have the value she needs to. But who has the time and the energy to do that when you're a single mom? So I vowed that I would talk to her later. And the later never came. And you know what? We had a pretty good Christmas that year.

Stephanie Garibaldi (9:06)

That was Stephanie Garibaldi. Stephanie describes herself as the hardest working story coach in the D.C. metro area, maybe even the world. As the director of Story Extreme, she runs monthly storytelling shows in Alexandria while teaching classes all over. Speaking of the perfect gift, my favorite gift of all time was my cork fetching half Siamese cat, Cleo. A present from my then boyfriend and now husband, Charles. She popped out of a wet cardboard box one December night and sealed the deal. Rest in peace, Cleo. On the theme of gratitude, I'd be remiss not to mention that the gift of story always fits. I work for the Moth. What else can I say? We're in the midst of our year end donation drive, so if any of the Moth stories have touched you and you want to share them with other people, you can support our mission by going to themoth.org or text. Give 24 with no space in between to 78679. Your support helps us bring storytelling workshops to students and community groups around the country. Once again, that's themauth.org or text. Give 24 with no space in between to 78679. Next up, here's Justin Werfeldt, who told this at a story slam in Boston.

Justin Werfel (10:25)

All right, two to one. That was the score. My father is not an easy man to give presents to. It's not that he doesn't like surprises. It's more that he doesn't like anything. And he's not shy about saying so. So while the rest of my family is all gathered around exchanging gifts, you know, trying to share with our loved ones the things that we found for them that we thought would delight them My dad opens a present and says, oh, why'd you waste your money on this? I don't want it. Which isn't such an easy thing to hear when you're, you know, six, but you get used to it, which doesn't mean that you stop trying. My sister and I had a running competition throughout our whole lives. We kept track of how many presents each of us had gotten for him that he'd actually liked. And the lifetime score was 2 to 1. To be fair, he was always very clear about what he actually wanted. And that was a sports car, which I think is the traditional present you get a child for their parent if you're the emperor of the Twelve Kingdoms. I mean, obviously he didn't expect to get one as a present, but from his point of view, it was like, why would he want some other thing that he didn't want? So we would get him things that we could, that we thought he would like and he would vocally not want them. That was the system. There was one time when I was like, I was probably seven or eight, I went into a Hallmark store and they used to sell these little cardboard jigsaw puzzles, like 100 pieces in a square little box. Like there was a section of the store devoted to these. Which actually, now that I'm looking back on this and saying this out loud, strikes me as really kind of strange. Like 100 piece jigsaw puzzles. That's a really specific niche audience. I mean, you've got to be enough of a control freak to like, enjoy setting things in order for recreation, but also too impatient for something that's going to take you more than a couple of minutes. Anyway, I used to be really into these. I had a whole collection. And so I went into the store that day and went to the inexplicable. A little cardboard puzzle section, see what they had. And oh my God, there was a puzzle there with a photograph of a red Ferrari. And in big letters on the box it said, your very own sports car. Some assembly required. Perfect. I could not wait for the next gift giving occasion to come around. And when it did, my dad opened the carefully wrapped package I gave him and he looked at it and said, oh, why'd you get me this? And it may have been that some disappointment showed in my face because he handed it back to me and he said, here, you take it, you'll use it. I didn't really. You know, a few years ago I was thinking about this puzzle, like it was so symptomatic, you know, of all of the things that I got him over the years that he couldn't stand, that one might have been the best. It was so ideal in so many ways. And it turned out that I wasn't the only one thinking about it. Like, a month later, I was visiting home and my dad just started talking about it out of the blue, totally unprompted. And the reason this is so weird is like, aside from the coincidence of both of us thinking about it around the same time, my dad has the worst memory. Like, he just absolutely remembers nothing. So for him to suddenly start talking about this present after a quarter of a century means that it must have really made an impact on him. And it had. What he said was, you remember that puzzle of the sports car you got me? That was the worst present. And I said, no, that was the best present. That was your little son who loves you, trying to get you something to please you. He said, okay, I get it. I said, no, you don't. That was the thing you were always saying you wanted. That was me finding a way to make it come true. He said, okay, I get it. I said, no, that was connecting my interests to yours, which is a thing you've spent my entire life saying you want to do. Like I said, I've just been thinking about this, and eventually I actually got him to change his mind about it, which is yet another thing that never happens. But in this case, eventually he came around to thinking, huh, that actually was a good present after all. And, huh, what a shame. Sort of in the way he received it. And what a lost opportunity. Well, I've always been organized. And when I grew up and moved out, over time, most of the stuff got moved out of my room, but a lot of it really just got moved down to the basement. So that night I went down to the basement and I found my old little chest of drawers. And I opened the bottom drawer where I kept my puzzle collection, and there it was where I'd put it when he gave it back. So when the next gift giving occasion came around, my dad opened the carefully wrapped package I gave him. And this time he got it. He keeps it on his desk now. It's the first thing he sees every time he sits down. Three to one.

Stephanie Garibaldi (15:43)

That was Justin Werfel. Justin is a research scientist at Harvard, where he studies collective intelligence in systems from robots to termites. His work has had the rare honor of being denounced by a former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. treasury as, quote, an enemy of the human race. That's it for this episode from all of us here at the Moth. Please know that listening to us is the greatest gift we could ask for.

Mark Salinger (16:13)

Christina Norman is the Chief Creative Officer at the Moth. She's excited to expand the world of the Moth and empower more storytellers everywhere. She lives in Brooklyn and you can find her most Saturday mornings in Prospect park with her husband and her Ridgeback Pepper. This episode of the Moth podcast was produced by Sarah Austin, Janess, Sarah Jane Johnson, and me, Mark Salinger. The rest of the Moth leadership team includes Sarah Haberman, Christina Norman, Jennifer Hickson, Meg Bowles, Kate Tellers, Marina Clouche, Suzanne Rust, Leeann Gulley, and Patricia Urenia. All Moth stories are true as remembered by their storytellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story and everything else, go to our website themoth.org the Moth podcast is presented by PRX, the public radio Exchange helping make public radio more public@prx.org.