Our book group is reading the "The Plague" by Albert Camus, and I found myself looking at past reviews of the book. In 1948, Stephen Spender wrote "Its sympathy saves this novel from being mere noble pamphleteering and raises it to the level of art."
In the face of today's many crises, I would urge that sympathy on us all. As in the quarantined plague city of Oran we are are trapped here in this world, in this life, for the moment at least. We can despair, we can lash out, or we can set to work to make things better.
Watching the news last night was heartbreaking. I can only begin to imagine the pain and rage African-Americans feel at the loss of yet one more. Likewise I can only begin to imagine the fear that the Boston police felt as thing were thrown at them and crowds lined up against them.
Whatever sides you feel tempted to take in the coming days, I can only urge you to spare a moment to imagine the plight of the other and hold up their humanity. We still have to set to work and make the world a better place. But as much as possible we should be fighting the plague, and not each other.
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