“Compassion is the most important,
perhaps the sole law of human existence.”
Dostoevsky
Image courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@vincentvanzalinge
" If I cannot find compassionate people in society,
I will find them in a book."
A friend asked me, “Who
is your favourite character in literature?”
“Oh, that’s a difficult one; it’s like deciding who your favourite child is,” I replied. “But, let me think… there’s Lucy Pevensie in Narnia, Boo Radley in Mockingbird, Hans Huberman in Book Thief and then I read Striped Pyjamas last year and Bruno impressed me.”
“Your favourite, Jim?”
“Okay, Prince Myshkin.”
“Prince who?”
“Prince Myshkin in Dostoevsky’s, The Idiot.”
“Why him?”
“Well, he was too good for this world.”
“Come again?”
“The story centres on Myshkin, who returns to St Petersburg after years convalescing in Switzerland with severe epilepsy. Although he’s a native of the city, he feels like an alien on his return; compassion was absent throughout the self-indulging society, and under his breath he uttered the condemnatory line, ‘Pass us by and forgive us our happiness.”’
I've always been interested in books that teach me compassion. If I cannot find compassionate people in society, I will find them in a book.
Writing: © 2024 Jim McCrory