The Weight of this Sad Time

The Answer: Yes. Yes, it can.

Cf. King Lear. Things also just keep getting worse and worse in Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
Had I your tongues and eyes I’ld use them so
That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever
I know when one is dead and when one lives;
She’s dead as earth.
[…]
And my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!

And then Lear dies.

What? Were you expecting a cheerful rumination on one of the greatest tragedies of all time?

Edgar can help.

O gods! Who is ‘t can say “I am at the worst”?
I am worse than e’er I was.
And worse I may be yet: the worst is not
So long as we can say “This is the worst.”

See! It’s not so bad. It could be worse!

Tragedies are, by definition watching a fall, but the descent in King Lear is precipitous and unrelenting. There is the personal fall of Lear, but there is also the fall of his friends and the ultimately his entire kingdom. Before one crisis has even hit its crescendo, the next one is already nearing its peak. Dealing with one personal tragedy or national crisis at a time is hard. Overlay them, and it is quite literally overwhelming.

You know this. At times, you have felt it.

Curiously, however, the final lines of King Lear (spoken by either Albany or Edgar depending on whether you are reading the Quarto or the Folio version of the play) are oddly hopeful.

The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

We that are young, you and I and everyone who has lived after Lear, shall never see so much. We shall never live so long. Ah, the optimism of youth.

The spirit of those final lines lives on. Think about the last big national tragedy—it makes no difference when you read this, just pick whichever tragedy is in the news. How often have you heard people wondering “How could this happen? After all that we have accomplished, how can we have this problem?”

Why is it a surprise when tragedy hits? I undestand the surprise of personal tragedy; you know horrible things happen to people, you are a person, but even still, there was no reason to expect that particular horrible thing to happen to you.

That being said, however, why is it a surprise when we read about tragedies happening in in the world? People are genuinely surprised every time something bad happens. We know bad things happened to people in the past. But, we really do believe “we that are young/Shall never see so much.” We really have internalized a triumphalist narrative that major tragedies are in the past.

We live in a fallen world. We often forget that. There is no surprise that bad things happen. Tragedy should not shock us. Some tragedies, like Lear’s, are brought about by our own actions. But, many tragedies, perhaps most, are, like those of Gloucester and Kent and Edgar and Albany and Cordelia, brought about by others. We try to stand firm in a fallen world, and the world collapses around us.

The question is thus not whether tragedy will hit. The question is how do we respond? Lear is a warning. Lean into the tragedy, rail against the tragedy, refuse to acknowledge the tragedy and the result is madness and despair. Speak not what you feel, but what you ought to say, and the result is blindness and banishment.

The alternative? Remember City of God. As Augustine explains at length (at long length), we should not be surprised about tragedy in the City of Man. Since Cain slew his brother in the field, the City of Man has been nothing but an unrelenting demise. The City of Man is doomed. The tragedies you see today are simply part of the death spiral. They were preceded by other tragedies and they will be followed by fresh tragedies. The City of Man offers no hope.

But, the City of Man is not the whole story. The City of God is a story of hope. The City of God runs parallel to the City of Man, offering beauty and joy. The surprise is not that there is tragedy. The surprise is that there is love and hope.

Why does this matter so much? In a time of national tragedy there is a very real temptation to anger and despair. You know this because you have felt it. As King Lear so perceptively demonstrates, that way lies madness. Instead, try loving your neighbor today. You may not feel like loving your neighbor when it seems like the world is burning down, but that is the perfect time to do so. That small act of love you perform today will benefit not only your neighbor. Showing love today will remind you that the City of God wins in the end, that this world contains something so much bigger than tragedy. This world contains Beauty and Truth. That truth shall set you free.