A crime writer's surprisingly uplifting philosophy

Maura McMillan offers an enlightened summary of the Zen-like philosophy of crime writer Charles Willeford:

[W]hile the world is filled with beautiful possibilities, all human endeavor is ultimately futile. His reaction, rather than suicide, was to consciously make himself into a person who despaired less; who forgave human stupidity and cruelty when he could, and examined it in his writing when he could not.

Some may consider this thinking pessimistic, but I find it inspiring and life-affirming that a person whose life experiences included riding the rails during the Great Depression and fighting in the Battle of the Bulge would reach such a conclusion.


—Mellow Monk

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