Jewish folklore speaks about responsibility with honest humor. One story states: “Once I get my house in order,” the man says, “I’m going to fix the world.” Then he says: “After fixing up the town, I’m going to fix up the house,” he says later. “When I fix the world, I’m going to fix my town too.”
The lesson is clear. People who pursue big things often ignore the small things and lose what is important.
The same instinct takes different forms. “It’s not my fault.” Blame often begins on the playground. “She started it.” “He hit me first.” As adults, we use more polite language and blame systems, structures, or things outside of our control. Language changes, but customs remain the same. Graham Greene once said, in the idiom of the day, that an innocent should walk through the world “wearing a leper’s bell.”
small boatVincent Delecroy’s new novel is a story of collusion, bureaucratic indifference, and responsibility.
The story is based on real events that took place in 2021, when a migrant ship sank in the English Channel. The film follows a French naval radio operator who receives distress calls from migrants but fails to provide adequate assistance. She wonders why she should be blamed rather than the larger system and society that enforces strict borders.
The novel rejects simple answers. Instead, they try to “instill consciousness” and show that it is easy to feel helpless. It’s a reminder that even though we watch preventable tragedies on screen, we often keep our distance. Being a bystander is a habit that is hard to break. “I’m not a hero.” Some seek change, while others enroll in the program and leave it alone.
“Effective altruism” reduces goodness to utility and results. Don’t just do the right thing. Take care of it. In other words, forget about Jesus’ “cup of cold water.” Build better irrigation systems. It’s not just about visiting prisoners. Reform the system. Rewarded help, conditional mercy.
This is contrary to the gospel. Old ideas about religion will disappear. God is not a judge who judges sin, but a savior who judges mercy.
In our current time, when the Ten Commandments are required in classrooms and stricter norms are demanded in a godless culture that reflects cancel culture, the words are not “repent or be punished,” but “turn back and live.”
In difficult times, the once famous philosopher Albert Camus is more important than ever. Few stories depict the helplessness that many people feel in the face of war, chaos, and a collapsing world. A lot of times people are just waiting for the next election or things to fall apart.
in the myth of sisyphusthe story of a man who is forced to push a boulder uphill, only to watch it roll down again and again, says Albert Camus, and the world does not promise that our efforts will succeed, last, or even matter in any clear way.
The answer is not to give up, but to keep working without illusions. Camus challenged the habit of always looking for solutions. We act without knowing whether our actions will “work” or not. When results are all that matters, you can make excuses for almost anything. Another rabbi said: “It’s not your duty to complete the task, but you’re not free to quit either.”
Sometimes it can actually be a relief to feel that things are meaningless. A cartoon character said: “I felt so much better after I gave up hope.” We act because the moment demands it, not because things are promised to work out.
For Camus, responsibility begins when we are no longer sure of the outcome. Do what needs to be done and reject what is false. The world may never criticize your actions. Being faithful is its own reward.
It’s a small scene that is far from Delecroy’s moral paralysis, but small boatmake your points specific. In Beirut, unemployed, displaced and ignored migrant women are pooling together a few dollars to cook for others in their situation.
The irony of this is hard to miss. In such acts, Christian witness, faith, charity, and even quiet evangelism carry out Camus’s claims more clearly than in argument. Act without guarantees. Meaning follows actions, not results.. Responsibility begins where results fall.
In an essay written after SisyphusAlbert Camus describes a world in which happiness is allowed, even though it offers no guarantees. “In the midst of winter, I realized that within me was an invincible summer,” he writes. Just fighting alone fills my heart. You must imagine Sisyphus happy.
In Beirut, Marcy continues to cook. For people who have almost nothing. There are no guarantees, results, or promises that anything will change. She does it anyway.
notes and reading
“She does it anyway.” – “Christian immigrants feeding displaced people in Lebanon” Christianity Today Online (May 1, 2026).
“In the Midst of Winter” – from Camus’s late essay “Return to Tipasa” (1952), about exile, memory, and the persistence of joy in the midst of destruction.
the myth of sisyphus-Camus (1942). Absurdity begins with the realization that the world is not rational. What follows is a clear-cut ethics of rebellion (not revolution): honesty without appeal to illusions. Camus resisted ideological totalization and rejected revolutionary violence.
little ship: a novel—Vincent Delecroy (April 21, 2026). Inconsolable moral clarity. He’s generous, strict, and doesn’t want to let anyone go. “The gut punch of a novel.” – 2025 Booker Prize Jury.
Jewish folklore―Nathan Ausubel (1948). A widely used collection of Jewish stories and sayings, based on centuries of rabbinic and popular tradition.
Camus a Christian? – In later years, Camus attended an American church (Protestant) in Paris, first to hear a famous organist, but then returned to preach. The pastor said Camus eventually asked him about something. private baptism. Baptism is usually public. They agreed to postpone the decision. Two years later, Camus died. (Although he rarely attended services, he had already been baptized in the Roman Catholic church.)
Despite his resistance to theistic solutions, did Camus still consider a hidden God?Deus Abconditus)? See Rev. Howard E. Mumma. Albert Camus and the Minister. In a contrasting view, ethical humanist David Splintzen states: Camus: An important test.
find what is not lost
caterpillar’s dilemma
Approximately 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
