Ouch

"If I cannot see some good in all of us and hope that the pain we all share will come to an end, what kind of man am I?" 

How often do you ask yourself a question as difficult as that? I sincerely believe the world would be a more civil place if we each tried to see more good in others. And I know I'd like myself a little more if I routinely integrated that kind of grace into my life.

"We are none of us innocent."

Pointing the finger at others is so much easier than looking at ourselves, isn't it? How much healthier I'd be if I considered my complicity in the injustices of the world instead of demonizing the folks who have been publicly declared guilty of wrongdoing. Why expend energy in such a negative way?

"It must be a terrible thing to know you've been a bad parent, but it's worse to know you have been an ungrateful child."

Ouch. The quotes above are from John Boyne's unsparing novel A History of Loneliness (2015). The narrator and central character - Odran Yates - is an insular Catholic priest who has tended a library as the cancer in the Church has metastasized and the payoffs to purchase silence have been authorized by Rome. The architecture is masterful, the prose is solid, the story is compelling. But I recommend it only to those unafraid to look inward.