PALADIN OF SOULS, the novel which earned Lois McMaster Bujold both a Nebula and her fourth Hugo for Best Novel, has a moment in there where the main character, Ista, is resentfully realizing her life is at a standstill. It seems she’s been called to a place where her hands seem tied. “What am I suppose to do now?” she rages in the loosest of paraphrases. And the answer she receives is, “work.”
Today I am grateful for the things which occupy our hands when our hearts and our minds cringe from the news.