His second observation was less concrete, more spiritual. Even amid all that devastation, people seemed happy—even gleeful. Somehow, James wrote, the shattered city was overtaken by “universal equanimity.” He described people sleeping outside for several nights afterward, partly to keep safe from aftershocks, “but also to work off their emotion, and get the full unusualness out of the experience.” People felt a connection to one another, a kinship that’s often lacking in ordinary life, and this togetherness seemed to make their problems more bearable.
