Under the Same Sky
“Our brothers are breathing under the same sky as we; justice is a living thing. Now is born that strange joy which helps one live and die, and which we shall never again postpone to a later time.” ALBERT CAMUS · THE REBEL
At the very end of The Rebel, after a long and often grim book, Camus lets a note of joy break through, and it is worth catching. A strange joy breaks through, one he says we need never postpone again.
Read that first image slowly. Not in some future, not in theory, but right now, at this moment, other people are alive and drawing breath beneath the same heaven you are.
It is such a simple fact that we forget it entirely. And yet it is the whole ground of solidarity. We share the air, the sky, the brief span of being alive. That is not nothing. That is almost everything.
Then the line that answers this month’s earlier warnings against sacrificing the present. This joy, Camus says, we shall never again postpone to a later time. No more waiting for a perfect world to permit us happiness. The joy is available now, in the shared sky, in living justice, in the company of our breathing brothers.
Right now, this hour, other people are drawing breath beneath the same heaven. That is a plain fact and also a reason for joy you have no cause to postpone. Step outside, look up, and know you are not alone in it.
