Giving and taking

George Bush brought gifts to Pope Benedict XVI, and people are carping about them.

There is a link so you can read the case for and against the gift and its giving. But this leads into another topic.

I’ve asked before - how do you receive a good? If someone gives you a gift that they’ve spent a good deal of time selecting for you, even if it is not to your taste, do you accept it and ask for the receipt so you can return it? Or do you accept it and then shove it away in a drawer? Or do you keep it nearby and consider it, use it, and try to figure out just what it was about the gift that made someone select it for you? Sometimes there is some self-discovery in doing that. You learn what you show to other people, for one thing.

I think I want to refer back to this when I do my rewrite of my book on the Wiccan Rede.