"Collected Poems: 1953--1993" by John Updike (1993)

One writes a story to share a thought. One writes a novel to escape by getting lost in one's own plot. One writes a poem to relive an emotion, in slow motion, and, in a single incision with the precision of the correct word, to relieve oneself of that emotion and to pin it onto the world. Updike's service is not in the depth of individual verses, but in the fellowship of a life distributed "as is."

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

War reminds one not to accept the prevailing social hierarchy uncritically. Different hierarchies are appropriate for coping with different adversities (e.g., wars, famines, environmental catastrophes). Because one adversity cannot be said to be more just than another, one hierarchy most effective against one adversity cannot be said to be more just than another hierarchy most effective against another adversity. Justice is advanced by collectively recognising multiple adversities and ideals, and by individually acknowledging the accidental element in one's own social status.