When things happen again and again to an individual, they become used to the action. When you first enter an odd-smelling room and notice the pungent scent, you eventually get used to it. When you move to a new school in a new state, unable to make friends and seem to succumb to the loneliness, you eventually get used to it. When Aunt Jennifer brings the same green bean casserole every Thanksgiving, you eventually get used to it.
The same goes for receiving. You never realize how much you take for granted until you realize that you are always being given to, because you eventually got used to it.
It was always easy for Max to see the world in a positive light because he always got what he wanted. The newest toys on Christmas and more money than he could store for his birthday. His family even celebrated Thanksgiving like it was called "Maxgiving," because it seemed like he was always asked what he wanted cooked for him. He was so used to it.
Max's mother always made sure to give. She did not have the best childhood herself, and so she made sure she gave him the gift of a bountiful life. All the gifts, clothes, money he could imagine. That was her gift to him. Without anyone else in the family besides her and Max, she was sure to spoil him. Her husband, and Max's father, had passed while Max was at a young age, and all other relatives had become distant. She had only Max, and Max only had her.
As he grew up, however, his life began to change little by little, and Max noticed. Although Max was spoiled, he was extremely kind. All the gifts that he outgrew, any extra money that was left over, or anything that he did not find particularly interesting, he would hand off to others. He would especially hand it off to those less fortunate. The change, he realized, was an urge to give.
Max's mother could no longer take this action of giving, or what seemed like to her, giving away. It almost seemed like she had spoiled herself through the action of spoiling Max. She had been so used to making sure Max had everything he wanted that she could not stand it when he gave to others. With that, she lashed out on him. She blamed him for being ungrateful, unhappy, and selfish. It made her feel like whatever she did for him was not enough for him, and that giving away what she had given to him to others was a selfish act. Living at home, Max could not escape her frustration.
It made no sense to Max. He was giving after all. This wasn't selfish, this was selfless! His mother was caught up in her own mind, assuming she was not being appreciated, which made her lash out. Even with constant explanation of why Max was giving away what he no longer needed, his mother did not understand. With this, Max left. He matured even more throughout the years and continued to give even more than he had before. His mother looked for him, sought after any signs of him throughout the years, but he was never found.
One day, his mother noticed an article in the paper. It talked about a man who was so charitable that he gave up his entire savings for a family that was bankrupt. She realized it was Max. He handed over everything he had to make sure that the bankrupt family were the ones who had everything.
His mother was filled with rage. She felt unloved and unappreciated. Everything she had cast onto him was a waste. She always felt like he relied on her for happiness the same way she had relied on him. The toxic method of giving to her child seemed to be worthless. She did not know how she was handle the anger, and how she would cope in the upcoming years by knowing that her son was as selfish as he was, at least in her eyes. Max knew this ahead of time, and he thought to himself, "She'll get used to it."
--- Author's Note ---
My story is based off of The Supernatural Person in the Lake, an Apache tale. The story for me was a little hard to understand, so it is possible that I interpreted in a different way. I was confused as to how I was going to write my own story based on it, so I took parts of it rather than the whole, which is something I normally don't do!
The tale was essentially about a mother who gifts a gift to her son of being a medicine man; this was hard to interpret, but as the story followed, it was clear that he was able to give a lot to others based on this gift. I tried to make it a little more modern and understandable for both myself and readers. I was afraid I would make it not similar to the story, but I got rid of that worry and began to take key parts that I enjoyed from the tale, like the gift from mother to son, and the end of the tale where he gives back to others. The gift is a main idea in the Apache tale, where the tale is based off of a 'gift' the mother gives to her son, with which the son gives to others. At least, that is how I interpreted it.
I would advise reading the tale yourself and finding out what it means to you, but I am glad I tried this new way of interpreting a text and creating my own story based off that technique!
Source: Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911)