I’ve been reading some older books the last few years, I’ve read Melville (Billy Budd), I’m reading Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities) and Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic. I read a history of the first year of the French Revolution (The Coming of the French Revolution by Georges Lefebvre) and I read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave to name just a few. And I’ve been really enjoying these older books, partly because it’s been a relief in a way to see that we are basically still the same. The times may feel crazy and tumultuous, but they have felt so before, and they will do so again. But I also wondered a little at why this felt so comforting. I could feel it but I couldn’t really explain it. Today I read an article by Martin Shaw about Myths, in which he said: “In place of isolation, we now have the camaraderie of situating ourselves within a bigger story.” And I thought, yes, that is what I am feeling and it immediately felt very obvious the way things do that are succinct and well said.