Beauty is the Extravagance That Makes Us Human

A first edition of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein" sold at auction for $1.17 million earlier this month, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a work published by a woman. When I tweeted out the news story, someone responded by saying it was hard to get excited about this news when so many people are starving and needy. The exchange reminded me of a story told about Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: