Editorial June 26, 2000 Issue

"Giving does not impoverish ..."

Heloísa Gelber Rivas

My friend's mother kept on giving without hesitation.

The flowers at the table that overlooked the gardens of a comfortable home were wonderful. As the dinner we'd been invited to proceeded, our host told us about his teen years of extreme poverty. Because of unfair political persecution, his family had lost all its possessions and money. Destitute, he and his mother had to live in a hut. Furniture was made of boxes; utensils, a bare minimum. Food at meals was one dish (sometimes only rice, sometimes beans).

Yet, in those years a modest arrangement of wildflowers from the roadside regularly adorned the table, and often there were guests.

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