Derek Chauvin, guilty on all counts of murdering George Floyd.

The sigh of relief heard round the world.

* * *

This morning I woke up as a fully vaccinated American, with a slightly sore left arm but otherwise peppy, proud of our health workers, and our jurors, and our brave seventeen-year-old citizens with cellphone cameras.

"Hello, I'm a pediatrician!" said the man who gave me my second shot. He must have been close to my age, and probably hadn't regularly administered shots since early med school, if then. But there he was, in his off hours, vaccinating one Mainer after another.

And then, late in the day, with fear and trembling, to learn that, yes, justice was served: the murderer was declared guilty: his badge did not protect him . . . this was an immense, an immense relief, like a stone rolled off a grave, and what must it feel like for George's family?

Today, I'll go back to my ordinary ways. Exercise class, editing, grocery shopping, gardening, laundry, hanging out with Paul and Tom, cooking something or other for dinner. But yesterday was momentous, both privately and communally.

So we sailed on, with sorrow in our hearts,

glad to survive, but grieving for our friends.

 

--Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson