halloween reading

The benefit of a uniform was that one need not struggle to be unique.... One could sink selflessly into the daily pattern, one could find one's way without groping. The little changes -- the red bird landing on the windowsill, and that was spring -- the leaves to rake from the terrace, and that was fall -- they were enough....

Then, a year ago, pale invalid Tibbett was carted to [her]... he was better at life than she was. He selfishly required that she be an individual, and he addressed her by her name. He joked, he remembered sories, he criticized old friends for abandoning him, he noticed the differences in how she moved from day to day, how she thought. He reminded her that she did think. Under the scrutiny of his tired frame she was recreated, against her will, as an individual....

There was much to hate in this world, and too much to love.

-- Gregory Maguire, Wicked

I read this passage by candlelight in the Lost Mountain Shelter. And as this was a fantasy, a whimsical book, it's wisdom caught me by surprise. Especially that last line.