I found Andrew Christie’s latest offering to be very moving (“Responding to unraveling,” Dec. 14). He and I have been at odds at times on these very pages, but I never once doubted his dedication to making the world a better place. I simply felt that he was headed in the wrong direction on some things. I am pleased that even in retirement he plans to continue trying to make things better. After all, a life without a noble quest is worth little.
As far as the “polycrisis,” decades ago the poet W. B. Yeats elegantly described it in his poem “The Second Coming”:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
Meanwhile, the rough orange beast is slouching toward Washington to be born again. We must all do our best to stop it.
Mark Henry
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in 2023 Year in Review.