In the evening, I often watch a drama on TV. Yesterday it was Law & Order–not for the violence. No. I watched it, because I knew that by the end of the hour, the mystery of who committed the crime would be solved. They would be caught and found guilty and Justice would be served. There’s something comforting about that.

The same thing happens in other crime dramas I watch: FBI, Elsbeth, and the new Matlock with Kathy Bates. I sit down knowing that justice will win out by the end of the hour.

When I was a child, I was exposed to lots of fairy tales. Thus I learned that stories should end with a problem being solved and justice being served or a kiss and a wedding. Often with both.

Some examples of fairy tale endings:

Snow White

She marries the handsome prince, but only after the evil queen falls off a cliff, is crushed by a rock, and her body is eaten by vultures. (Disney version. The original fairy tale version is even more gruesome.)

Hansel & Gretel

The evil witch with a house made of cakes and cookies (children) is pushed into her own oven by Hansel and burned to death. Furthermore, the stepmother who sent the children into the woods dies before they return to their happy father.

Rapunzel

The witch who kept Rapunzel in the tower falls to her death from the tower window and disintegrates into dust when she hits the ground. And … Rapunzel marries the handsome prince.

Of course, life is not a fairy tale. But even in life, we still expect justice.

Some examples from history:

John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. He was shot and killed after a twelve-day chase.

Lee Harvey Oswald. He was shot by Jack Ruby two days after he assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

Osama bin Laden. It took almost ten years, but finally he was caught and killed.

None of these were Law & Order endings. But at least you could say that in the end the wrongdoers faced justice.

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No matter what happens now in this unusual and difficult time, we’re still expecting that justice will be served, eventually. We can’t help it. Our stories, fictional and real, always end that way. Don’t they?