> “The fallacy of dividing people into sane and insane lies in the assumption that we really do touch other lives... Hence I would judge the sanest man to be him who most firmly realizes the tragic isolation of humanity and pursues his essential purposes calmly”
Tragic isolation indeed. The story of Savage, the African American sculptor, rings with as much tragic isolation as Joe’s. The author and the reader share the emotion, which is probably the measure of success in any writing.
It’s somewhere around this age of mine when one realizes one will be forgotten - and quickly. A few database columns here or there and then what? Subsumed by billions of the equally forgotten. So, I pursue my essential purpose; is there anything else?