Why Read: a long book about disease & death ...
This is a good time to read LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you read it years ago, reread it. The title says it all. We as humans have always lived in the “Time of Cholera”, whether literally (Covid 19) or figuratively (post 9/11). We have always had to deal with the inexplicable horrors of living whether in the form of the terrorist or a cancer cell or a virus. We will all die, reluctantly, surprisingly, terribly or slowly – it will all be the same in the end. Marquez’s world is filled with terrible, unending Civil Wars, unexpected and lethal outbreaks of cholera, random acts of violence by man and nature – all wrapped within indolence, prejudice and fear. Yet, his novel is a love poem to man. It is our capacity to love that is the miracle of miracles. Where does it come from? How does it endure? Marquez does not give answers; rather, he simply describes its shocking, redemptive presence. In the end, it will not be religion or wealth that will see you through. In the end, neither the virus nor the terrorists will win. Rather, according to Marquez, you will be “overwhelmed by the belated suspicion that it is life, more than death, that has no limits.” The fact that such a limitless world of comfort and wonder exists within us may be the best reason to raise your half filled glass and ask for more … particularly now in the terrible year of 2020.
