As a longtime atheist, Oswalt has stated that he uses those words as his form of a belief system, and he also brought them up in his Netflix special Annihilation, in which he spoke at length about his grieving process in the months after McNamara’s death.
To many, those two categories might have looked random and unconnected, but for those who are fans of Michelle McNamara and Patton Oswalt, the pair almost certainly inspired a double-take.
Be kind,” was a mantra-esque saying that McNamara had, which basically means to do good to others in a world where the opposite is always present.