Daily Dose

From The Dog's Last Walk (And Other Pieces), by Howard Jacobson

THIS, TOO

"This, too, I wanted to lean across and tell my neighbor: a face that bears the history of affection can be a loverly thing; the lines of mirth and sorrow that experience etches are more engrossing -- and that can mean more sensually as well as intellectually and spiritually engrossing -- than no lines at all; extravagant beauty is not the lot of everyone, at any age, but there is an exquisiteness that even the plainest face can possess by virtue of kindness given and recieved, by virtue of what the eyes -- if you would only leave them alone -- have registered, and by virtue of what the lips -- if you would let them be themselves -- have uttered."

From In God's name, why?