If disaster, so be it, they said to themselves. There was nothing to be done except what could be done. The rest -- like the salt water around them, which swallowed the snow without effort, remaining what it was implacably -- was out of their hands, beyond.

David Guterson
About This Quote

This quote is about how to react to bad things that happen to you. We can be sure that if there is a disaster, there will be lots of people trying to help you. The problem with this is that they will do it with their plans, their ideas, and their own goals. They will do it with the means that they see fit.

That's what the people in the story did. They didn't rely on others to help them. They relied on themselves and their own skills.

What they ended up with was salt water instead of fresh spring water.

Source: Snow Falling On Cedars

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