The Attractor

Joseph Campbell used to enjoy retelling a story told by the old German anthropologist Leo Frobenius. The story goes one day Frobenius was at his desk and his little daughter, a little girl, was tugging at him for attention. He looks around his desk and finds three used up, burn matchsticks, and he gives them to the little girl as an act of kindness. That was good enough for the little girl and off she went.