Having in recent years thought a great deal about luck from the other side of the deal, so to speak, these were a strangely revelatory few lines for me—causing me to suddenly realise something so staggeringly obvious that I can’t imagine how I managed not to know it heretofore.

(If you’re thinking that doesn’t say much for my generosity, well, you might have a point. I’d counter that, for most of my adult life, I didn’t have much worth giving—or at least that I didn’t believe I did, which amounts to the same thing.)