Too often good deeds go unrewarded, while evil goes unpunished. If we don’t believe in an afterlife, how are we to make our way through the seemingly arbitrary disorder of the unfairness we so often encounter?
Camus strove “to be a just man in an unjust world.” The reward for undertaking this contradiction lies in the input we make, rather than the outcome of our lives. His choice was to “neither victim nor executioner be.” In other words, it’s okay to take care of ourselves, but not at the expense of others.
We may never know a world devoid of poverty and oppression, but we must continue to try to bring it about nonetheless. Like the Man of La Mancha, “We must live the impossible dream.”
We give our lives meaning and worth by trying to do the right thing.