We are at 122,550 deaths from the virus in the USA as I type this. That means, by simple abstraction, many fathers were lost to this thing. Hate to be someone who talks about the dark-side of things, but, seriously, how the hell can you avoid it?????
Here in central New Jersey (YES! IT IS A PLACE!) things are trying to place their reticent toes in the water of the ocean of normalcy. Somehow, politics has won over basic biology, and wearing masks is now a political statement. Like....what?? Politics is cultural. Biology and physics are amoral. People, that is Reality 101!
It is Summer, so I am re-re-rereading "The Plague". I can't help it. I have to read it every year around this time. The whole place I am within now is not within the book. A Bubonic Plague just ravages where it is at. This virus has killed, what was the number I stated before, OVER 122.5 K and rising here is the USA? RISING! Seriously, people, can we just get into the concept of basic human reality and wear masks????
I refuse to talk politics in this narrative as it is not in keeping with Albert Camus' narrative of the book, The Plague. I will say, as a matter of fact, that about 6,200 people gathered fora political rally in Tulsa with the deep majority not wearing facemarks in an enclosed area with central air circulation.
In Camus' book, there is a MASSIVE gathering at the Catholic Church in town to hear Fr. Panaleux give a sermon to give tonic for the troops, to help people get through this newly appointed ruler of the town. Camus is stunning at how he places the words of a Jesuit Priest into his character. Seriously. Camus hated religion but loved the writings of St. Aquinas. (They both really liked the intimate company of women and loved to party.) It is an amazing sermon the character brings, even though it is littered with everything Camus hates about organized religion.
In that sermon, the massive church is full, beyond capacity. All there have at least some place within them to turn to God, the infinite unknown, within their turmoil. If you read the whole scene, is is a masterwork of writing on every level.
Well, here is New Jersey, we are taking the median route. I have yet to hear any people profess to have new faith id God, but there is a desire to go drinking and shop. In terms of Moses and the people he led into freedom, this does not bode well.
In the end, I believe, habit is greater than the fear of death. We want more of what once what was, so much so that it blinds us of death. We gain meaning from going about what are used to and will follow that past the edge of the obvious cliff.
But all of us who have ever been born have been so for the physical presence of a father, in one form or another. Many of us find surrogate parents in others that we are blessed with and are forever changed by the better via their presence, even if it was subtle.
Oh, yeah. None of the main male characters in "The Plague" have children. This makes sense since Camus was not married with children at the time. To be frank, it is a major sausage fest of seemingly celibate heterosexual guys enclosed in a port-town. So, don't look for fatherhood there,... with the "minor" character, M. Othon. It is his son's death from the plague that changes the course of the narrative for just about all the main characters, especially Dr. Rieux and Fr. Paneloux. So, like it or not, fatherhood plays a part in the book as the father is never the same after the death of his son, with characters having to bold-face lie in stating the child did not suffer much.
So, Happy Father's Day from Oran. Sorry all the restaurants are closed....
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