I do not know of a corollary to this honoring of gifts in human economic thought. Economic thought is primarily from the point of view of the market – the interplay of supply and demand – the competition for resources. But there is this other dynamic that is neither addressed by laissez-faire nor welfare state economic beliefs. The dynamic is that when more people contribute to the pie the pie is bigger and there is more to go around. It is a false choice that the strong are entitled to their bigger share, or, must give away some of their share so the weak can survive. We all have a gift and we all benefit when more people can give of their gift and we all suffer when others are prevented from giving of their gift.

I do not know of a corollary to this honoring of the gifts in any philosophical tradition. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us – and we interpret that - as part of God's will – that we are called to charity for those less fortunate than ourselves. And charity may prevent the worst of tragedies but does not seem to rescue people from useless meaningless lives – it does not generally facilitate the giving of one's gift.

But this honoring of gifts – honoring the gift of the strong and powerful as well as the gift of the weak and powerless – honoring the gift of the least among us – this too makes the difference between a community experiencing economic expansion and a community in decline. This is because and economy is a set of transactions focused on a place – if there are more transactions and more kinds of transactions the economy is growing and expanding – if there are fewer transactions or fewer kinds of transactions then the economy is in decline.

To be fully aware of the forces playing out around and through us means that we will be aware of those gifts around us that remain un-given.