— Anonymous
I would consider the poems from the Tao Te Ching to be great works of literature, and I think the messages the poems portray, associated with the dark and light yin-yang are especially significant in the times we are all living through today. There is a strong sense of darkness associated with the covid-19 epidemic, people are unsure of what’s going to happen to them or their loved ones, people are taking extraordinarily drastic measures to protect themselves, be it through social distancing, staying home, and not working at all. This is surely the darker side of the yang, the lighter side of the yang is the glimmer of hope people have striving to return to normalcy, they know that if this all blows over, people may have suffered deeply, but when all returns to normalcy, people will be able to once again be reunited with their friends and families, and go out into the city that was once flush with life. Poem 13 from the tao can also be tied into this pandemic, “Do not be concerned with loss or gain.” This quote can be tied into knowing what you’re missing out on, do not be concerned that spring has sprung and you are now confined to your house, it will be over soon, do no be concerned that your job has temporarily closed, when this ends it will reopen, and if it doesn’t there will surely be more oppurtunities in the future, perhaps better ones. Life is all about taking the good with the bad. You may be confined to your home now, but you should take the time to make yourself a better person now to prepare for the outside world when it reopens. While this is truly a misfortune for a lot of people, it is for the greater good of everyone to stop the spread, and those that are out there disregarding this message and not caring for it, may see the light now, but when they infect themselves, their loved ones, or anything else for that matter, the dark will follow them. This may not be a traditional critique of the work of literature as done previously, but it is certainly interesting seeing a phenomenon like this that hasn’t been seen since a lot of us can remember so close to home. In these times, it’s refreshing to remember the message “the dawn is always darkest before the day,” “take the good with the bad,” and “this too shall pass.” I think a yin-yang is very symbolic in describing the times in which we’re living in today.
