One of the more illuminating incidents of my life was to be asked to share a freshly baked cake from a wood-burning oven in a house with cardboard walls, cellophane windows, and a tarpaper roof.

My wife’s early experience of life was a good deal broader than mine.  We were visiting one of her childhood friends.

St. Ambrose writes, "It is the intention that makes the gift valuable or poor, and gives to things their value.”  This gift, I thought, was kingly.

-- St. Ambrose of Milan, On Duties, Book 1, Section 149