all these little relationships

all these little relationships

fiction

Once I talked to a mobster type for a minute and in passing she told me that as she got older it was hard for her to stay genuinely interested in all the little relationships between people and all the complex rules and obligations that they entail. Looking back reflecting on my life while going through this stay at home order in America I finally understand that sentiment.

On a whim with that thought in mind I reread the short novella by James Joyce "the Dead" today.
Joyce populates the party mentioned in the story with several sad pathetic types who are incapable of change. The final exchange between the couple is just too sad.

Also today I saw a brief part of an interview on TV with one of the richest men in the world Bill Gates about his efforts to help find [and fund  I assume] a vaccine to combat the virus currently crossing the world. For us, humanity, all, I hope he is successful. I hear as a big picture type guy Gates worries about a virus or tragedy someday killing a million people or more unexpectedly.

All these little relationships between the 7 billion plus of us humans. Bill Gates one of the seven Billion humans plans and programs his time by the minute and works on several initiatives to curtail population growth in Africa and elsewhere in the civilized world while also funding vaccine research to save lives. Meanwhile most of the world lives like Gabriel and Gretta in James Joyce's "The Dead"; private lives of quiet desperation a bit pathetic when examined too closely and all to brief when viewed in real time.