It is a seductive mistake to say that the pandemic X-rays their souls. What happens in “The Plague” mostly happens through happenstance: strong people die, weak people cope, the average become exceptional. W. H. Auden, writing in yet another candidate for an epochal year, 1939, insisted that we must love one another or die—and then withdrew the remark, recognizing that we are all going to die no matter what we do. He decided that we ought to love one another anyway, or try to, year in and year out.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/did-the-year-2020-change-us-forever
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