Mayor Cory Booker.Photo: WikipediaCory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J., has gotten a lot of attention for his use of Twitter this winter. He’s been roaming the streets of his city using it to find people who are stuck in the snow (which has been unrelenting this season), and helping to shovel them out. It’s been kind of awesome.
But this afternoon he outdid himself. As the wind was howling and a wretched mix of sleet and snow was pelting his winter-weary city, Booker tweeted:
Blown away by kindness I’m seeing today. In the depths of this harsh winter, I see in the hearts of most people resides an invincible spring
If you don’t get the reference, one of his followers wrote back just a few minutes later:
So you are paraphrasing Camus.
The original quote, in case you haven’t spent any time with the author of The Stranger lately, appears to be this:
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Or — and I’m hoping this is right: “Au milieu de l’hiver, j’ai découvert en moi un invincible été.“
I still haven’t tracked down exactly where Albert Camus wrote those words. Hit us in the comments if you know the source.
And Newark, you now have bragging rights as the only city with a mayor who not responds personally to calls for snow removal via Twitter, but then can think about what he sees on the streets and pull out a little existentialist philosophizing about it. Well played, N.J.
