by Sarah Lane
Giving a seasonal gift, whether for Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, might appropriately be intended for various reasons:

to express love,
to spread joy, and
to share abundance with those in need.

It is often, however, done for the following reasons:

to fulfill an obligation,
to meet an expectation, and
to fill a void.

In a world teeming with excess and yet, at the same time, bursting with want and need, in a world choking on plastic and suffocating from carbon emissions, we need to work toward eliminating those last three reasons and grope our way …