Not "what have I done to deserve this?" but "what will I do to deserve this?"
It's all gift. None of it earned. We only get to spend or try to hoard it. (Hear that ominous light clattering at your feet? gold passing into lead through your clenched hands?)
I love that a bunch of you are giving Adam Levine a listen on my dubious say so. Yesterday his song, today his beard. (That only makes any sense at all if you've seen the movie Begin Again, wherein his self-parody won me all but completely. And don't even get me started on the joys of a CeeLo Green cameo...)
Anyway, from here forward, I will use (notice the slide into royal peremptoriness) "Adam's beard" to flag not-quite-helpless lapses into pretension (to which I am prone even in more upright circumstances). Like now, when I want to give you a couple of "rather substantial" book recommendations. For what they're worth:
The Gift • Lewis Hyde
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity • Richard Rorty
Forza!
Gretchen