Hi, I'm Meg Wallitzer.

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There's an art to both giving and receiving,

and every holiday season offers us a new opportunity to understand generosity and gratitude.

I'm Meg Wallitzer, and on this episode of Selected Shorts,

fiction that delivers new lessons about doorman, in-laws, even a higher power.

Stay tuned.

Music a higher power. Stay tuned. You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the magic

of fiction, one short story at a time.

It's easy to get swept up in the holidays. The season brings with

it so many appealing associations, family, food, a selfless concern for fellow humans, and plenty

of traditions involving candles, trees, songs, stories, and of course gifts. Speaking of gifts,

my sister and I were never given Barbie dolls by her parents.

I think it had something to do with the merits of not having something everyone else had. Instead of

Barbie, we were once given Barbie's younger sister, Skipper. And as a result, I went into therapy

over it years later, but not with the therapist everyone else went to. Instead, I saw her younger sister. She was

cheaper and nicer, and her office was in an actual office building and not in a dream house.

The holiday season offers a true break from the norm. We remove ourselves from the day-to-day grind

...