Us and Them and Small Things Like These

One of my favorite books is Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan.

I re-read it recently, just to savor the characters and dialogue, the many themes spoken and unspoken. And it made me think about who I view as Us and Them.

Bill and Eileen, struggling to make ends meet, have five daughters. At the end of a long day, Bill tells his wife about a young girl he saw in a home for unwed mothers who was clearly being abused.

Eileen responds angrily:
“What do such things have to do with us? … If we just mind what we have here and stay on the right side of people and soldier on, none of ours will ever have to endure the likes of what them girls go through.”

Bill, surprised by her reaction, asks:
“But what if it was one of ours?”

Eileen, rising up again, replies:
“This is the very thing I’m saying. 'Tis not one of ours.”

It seems out of character at first. Eileen is a loving and generous mother and wife. But her circle of compassion—who is Us and who is Them—is different than Bill’s. And she won’t have Bill say or do anything that could potentially put her family at risk.

I like to think I'm like Bill, but aren’t I more like Eileen? Not daring to say or do anything when I pass someone suffering on the street, or read about genocide and deportations in the news. A quick, cold calculation and: “'Tis not one of ours.”

What about you? Are you more like Bill, Eileen, or somewhere in between?

The book is a short read, only 114 pages, but it stays with you.