When Gifts are Considered Contraband

I… won’t be able to send a gift to this little guy this year…

So I’m still processing this so this is going to be quite rough…

I was just at the post office trying to resend a hat I had painted for a friend—one of my dearest. The same one I wrote in a recent post. 

The clerk looked at me and said, “Impossible.”

Only documents.

No gifts.

No packages.

Por que?

 He looked me in the eye and said—

“Trump.”

And that hit me really hard. 

I mean, I knew things would change drastically and that’s a big reason why I’m abroad.

But it’s yet another quiet, creeping moment of a line drawn between me and the people I love. 

It’s absurd. 

A hat. 

A piece of art made with care. 

Not contraband.

Just a small gift—under $100.

To a friend who captures life—who’s been a part of mine for over a decade. 

It’s not just a hat. 

It’s care. It’s memory. It’s color and friendship sent in a box.

But now it gets blocked by a man who has never given a shit about anyone besides himself. 

Not you. 

Not me. 

And certainly not the bridges we try to build across oceans. 

I’m full of grief, rage, and fatigue. 

A single word.

Trump.

But it’s not just a single word is it?

Millions voted for him—twice. 

Millions still stand by him. 

Millions still believe this is the way back.

Now these are the consequences. 

Before I went to the post office, I was having breakfast with two of my older friends, a married couple, who sort of adopted me. They were talking about how many of the homes are being bought up by wealthy Americans leaving the States. “A lot of people from Florida! Buying million Euro homes! Our neighboring home just got bought by people from Miami!” “Haha, careful, Floridans are a little loco” I joked. “We’ve heard! You’re about the fifth person who’s said that! MAGAers…” 

Then they remarked their disgust seeing these types of Americans had no intention on living like Europeans. The husband asked if I had experienced any anti-American sentiment. “No, none at all.” “Of course!” The wife proclaimed, “who can hate you? Look at you! You’re so cute and you’re taking classes and learning our ways—how to be European! But really! When are Americans going to say enough is enough!?! They chose this and you must have the courage to say ‘Enough!’ This is your consequence!”

So ya, it’s disgusting. The wealthier ones can move their lives abroad, many with no intention on becoming European, who may have even voted for this… while many of my wonderfully beautiful friends, many who are people of color and LGBTQ, who did not vote for him, have to live with it. 

But how long are we going to keep choosing this? And how long is it going to have lasting, very real, impacts? But this didn’t begin with Trump. After all, we’re still living in the shadow of Ronald Reagan’s detrimental effects… 

Mental health gutted.

Communities abandoned.

Drug wars raged.

Police militarized. 

The AIDs crisis ignored.

The wealthy given nauseating amounts more.

The rest? Told to bootstrap our way up.

And I have to hold onto the belief art, writing…connection…is stronger and will find ways to cross borders with tenderness.  

That they, like myth, still shape us.

Gods are compasses.

We make gods.

We make myths.

It impacts our rituals, our day-to-day, and our breath.

Our gods are only as powerful as we believe them to be. 

I’m not choosing forward.

And I sure as hell am not choosing back.

I choose now. I choose present.

And if we must live by myths—and we do.

Let mine be older.

The ones who remind us we belong to the earth, not the other way around.

I know my gods— of Creation and the Wilderness— 

Gaia and Pan, 

Wild and Beautiful— 

are stronger than this false god of Dominion and Possession.  

I am choosing to believe in them because we need collective stories, 

Balance—

What is stronger than the gods? 

Anyways, my friend and I decided to hold off a few weeks before sending his hat to Germany. Hopefully this clears up soon.

But I can’t help feel like the lines are being drawn.

https://group.dhl.com/en/media-relations/press-releases/2025/new-us-customs-regulations-temporary-restrictions-on-postal-goods-shipping-to-the-us-for-private-and-business-customers.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/25/postal-services-in-europe-suspend-parcel-shipments-to-us-amid-uncertainty-over-tariffs