A little less than two weeks ago, David Brooks of The New York Times asked readers in an Op-Ed piece to write to him and let him know to what extent and how life during the coronavirus pandemic is affecting them and, more pointedly, their mental health.
One week later, in his April 9, 2020 column entitled "The Pandemic of Fear and Agony", he shared some of his readers' responses. The responses, admittedly a small sampling of what he received, are extraordinary. I commend the column to your attention. If I may, I would also commend Mr. Brooks' book "The Road to Character" to your attention. It is an eminently worthwhile read.
The readers' responses that Mr. Brooks published in his April 9, 2020 column were, indeed, extraordinary. Even more so, at least in my opinion, were the comments readers offered in response to the column. One, in particular, caught my eye.
A woman identifying herself as S W Hanna from Celt, Virginia commented:
My husband died a year ago, by his own hand (long story short, he thought he was losing his job, three years from retirement and that we would be ruined). I survived this last year in hope that my grief would become bearable, that somehow I would be able to reinvent my life without him.
Somehow.
And now this.
"Courage!" I tell myself.
"Courage!" I wish you all.
Yet still I shake when I wake in the middle of the night.
As of Saturday morning, which is the last time I checked it prior to composing this, her comment had received 537 "recommended" (the NYT Comments Section's equivalent of the thumbs-up) and two dozen responses, including mine. This woman's display of candor and courage moved me. It truly moved me.
This brave soul is living - and now demonstrating by baring her soul and sharing his tragedy from her life - the distinction between fear and panic. The tone of her comment revealed, to my ear at least, the fear she carries with her during her day-to-day. More importantly, her comment revealed that in spite of that fear, she makes it through her day-to-day every day. Moreover, it revealed that whether she yet realizes it, she will make it. She's made of sterner, stronger stuff than she likely ever realized she was, which realization she shall carry with her all of the days of her life.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes all the difference.
-AK
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