![]() ![]() Set during October and November of 1918 in an unnamed American town, the story chronicles a young woman’s month-long struggle against the Spanish influenza, which claimed over 600,000 American lives and 50 million worldwide, further adding to the already devastating death toll of World War I. It was Lent then, it is Lent now, and every step forward comes with warnings from public officials that we are not out of the woods yet.īut there is light at the end of the tunnel, hope at the sight of Spring, and what survivors of the pandemic face next – whether survivors of physical, financial, or emotional suffering – is a lazarean question: having been saved from death, how should one now live? As we approach reopening and contemplate both personal and collective healing, Katherine Ann Porter’s novella Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939) can help us to answer that question, giving us a timely reflection on the value of life, regardless of the terms. ![]() This past Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of my hometown going into lockdown. ![]()
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