Still Thinking, October 1998

“Generosity”
By Sue Bender, from Everyday Sacred

    I gave a talk to a book club in Oakland. All the members had lost their homes, lost everything to the terrible Oakland-Berkeley fires of 1991. They lost pictures, momentos, diplomas, records – all the little and big things that made up their history and the history of their parents and grandparents.

One of the club members described having given a precious object to a friend. She had treasured the porcelain piece and almost didn’t give it away because she loved it so much. After the fire her friend returned the object. Another woman told the group she gave away the things she didn’t like and, after the fire, the same things were returned to her.