Good as Gold

Gold is not good in this place, instead we value love. Pie-in-the-sky. Asking for the impossible. I do like gold, tho. Not for money, for the softness and warmth of the metal. For its history, for its sad history. For its tie to ancient peoples. Gold set against skin. Your gold is not god here. Which just means you are welcome here. We will take care of you. We waive away your worries. You don't owe us anything. We've got you covered. Home, they say, means when you have to go there, they have to take you in. It's, like, the least they can do. But generosity is also a politics.  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart. Gold makes you sweaty and ugly. It causes men to dig and build things. To plot and scheme. You have to admit, Humphrey is a crazy good name. That whole film is about going insane because of gold. It's the only good, the gold. Men want gold for one reason, women for another. Gold shares. Sharing gold. Wearing gold. What is that french story about the miser? Eugenie Grandet! The miser father, Felix, an ironic name. There are houses in certain provincial towns whose aspect inspires melancholy....