There’s a strange parallel in recently returning to a book from the past, Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century,” and watching the media cover the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The fear of violence and the chaos of uncertainty in that faraway century are just as present in our culture as they were some 700 years ago. Tuchman’s book, published in 1978, illustrates a picture of the 14th century that reads perilously similar to some aspects of life today. But a question that arises: How can we find peace or solitude in our current calamitous era? After allowing the thought of the impact of war to overpower me with uncertainty, I left my house in search of a haven. The closest place was an outdoor pavilion, set aside in our neighborhood for small family or social gatherings. Seven tables defined the rectangle structure and fortunately no one else …