Giving Unconditional

* I strongly disagree with Christopher Nyerges’ “Con Artists Love the Holidays Too” (Voices, Dec. 2). While I am hardly “enlightened,” I try to practice a Zen saying that goes: “When you’re hungry, eat; tired, sleep.” People ask for money throughout the year and for a variety of reasons which, while they may not jibe with my values, reflect a need for something. What that desire is is none of my business: If I have the money and feel so inclined, I give, without subjecting the person to an interrogation based on my attitudes or relation to money. After all, who am I to determine if someone’s ability to articulate what might sound like a legitimate need is any more worthy than a vivid imagination used creatively by a person whose need is, at least to him, no less real?

RUTH KRAMER ZIONY

Los Angeles