Booktime

I haven't read to you for a while, so since nothing is happening for me at present, here is one of my favourite passages from "Civil Campaign" by Lois McMaster Bujold (one of because there are others - they never fail to move me)

"Well.  I don't wish to invade your privacy.  But do remember, you're allowed to ask for help.  It's part of what families are all about."

"I owe you too much already, milady."

Her smile tilted. "Mark, you don't pay back your parents.  You can't.  The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn.  It's a sort of entailment.  Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity.  Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one."

"I'm not sure that seems fair."

"The family economy evades calculation in the gross planetary prodct.  It's the only deal I know where, when you give more than you get, you aren't bankrupted - but rather, vastly enriched."