Trying to Stay Sane

I have often commented here that once in a while, while reading a quite good mystery story, I come across a statement that is more universal than specific and touches much more in life than the solving of a crime or the furthering of a plot.

Given the state of the world right now ~ and maybe because I have recently been at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, home of both our Declaration and Constitution ~ and maybe because I believe in Love and Hope and Peace, I found this reflection by amateur detective Mordicai Tremaine to be particularly gratifying.

from Murder Has A Motive by Francis Duncan

“You couldn’t see only beauty in the world. You had to see the disfiguring stains, the sordid and sprawling things, too. Because that was life. Life was ugly and untidy besides being beautiful and marvelous and full of wonder. You had to see the dirt as well as the stars. To see the dirt and not become a cynic, to hold fast to one’s ideals, to preserve one’s belief in the underlying decencies of humanity — that was the real purpose of living. “