Dickens defined happiness as total income being a shilling more than total expenditure, and misery as it being a shilling less. Peter Singer defines luxury as anything you don't need (endlesschain.substack.c…). I have no money, and am happy, and people don't understand that. The first thing that people do when they have a million dollars is worry about how to hang onto it. In Scotland, it is not competent to disinherit your children, so we tell them how much we have. In England, you can, and we tell them to read the will, come the day. But no one who ever said "I'll bequeath it to you" did so. And whether they answer for that is something we'll never know. Not for now. But I have a question for you to consider, before I go:

Jesus said that it is easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle than for him to enter the Kingdom of God. He told the young lord who had asked him how to get to heaven to give his riches to the poor, and that then he would be able to enter heaven. Not that he would enter heaven if he did that, but doing that would raise his "ability". So, here's the question, and I have a supplementary.

1. What did Jesus mean by rich? What is "giving one's riches to the poor"?

2. One of the Wise Men who attended shortly after Jesus' birth brought with him a gift of gold. Why?