The Humming from the Skies (There is no safe place)

 I think I need to explain the odd and unseen humming that seems to be getting louder every day.

In "The Plague", Fr. Panaleux talks about an ancient plague where a saint could see an angel above the houses being told where to strike the ones with plague. For the rest of the novel, Dr. Rieux , an atheist, keeps commenting that he feels he hears a strange buzzing coming from above. He can't place it or name it, but he believes that it is somehow connected to what Panaleux said.I do not want to talk about politics, but I have to add the following to describe what this time is like and it would be a sin of omission if I did not say something about the present time's political and cultural tone. Don't worry, it ties into the pandemic.

Here in the United States, we are hitting over 170,000 deaths from the pandemic with no real signs of stopping any time soon. That would be enough to cause a sense of panic in any other time. But now, there is another crushing fear running through the collective nervous system. So, yes, unlike the town of Oran in the novel "The Plague", we are getting pummeled while we are down.

On either side of the political spectrum, the past four years have been a blooming of the past twenty-five or so years, give or take the Civil War. Both sides are in a panic over the upcoming election and if the present president will choose to declare the results fraudulent if he looses. A minority of this country worships him, many of them literally so. The tension in the air over this is beyond palpable. All of us are having to deal with this one way or the other, whether we like it or not. 

There is also an economic crushing going on. The present political storm is causing it to go almost unnoticed. The GDP was down for the last quarter over 34%. If this continues for the next few quarters, it is going to show we have a new economic depression on our hands. The unemployment rate is out of control. It is not pleasant out there for many of us.

On a personal level, Musicians and all creative people in the analogue arts have been bashed in the kneecaps and are floundering to get back to their vocation. It was not easy before this, but not it is a famine for us.

There does seem to be this horrible unseen humming going on. No one is really at peace. I shall suppose that some people are doing well, most likely the very wealthy who, like in Camus' book, always seem to be buffeted from the pain of such things. But the majority are swimming each day within an emotional and spiritual mud that we have no choice but to struggle through. It is no surprise that the rate of suicide is up at this time. All of us in this country are having to deal with a crisis both of health and our very government. 

In Camus' book, there are festivities at the end of the plague, the moment when the past seems to be deleted from the soul and the future that holds the most sacred of hope is all that matters. I cannot believe that there will be such a day with us at the end. It will be a slow recovery and we will still be suffering the damage of the political issues long after the pandemic passes. Yes, there will be moments where we all embrace the future, but I do not believe it will be a singular day with a singular event. We will get out of this at some point, but we will be entering a house that was on fire and we will have to rebuild just to get some rest. We are not soldiers who, at war's end, have the gift of returning to a place where the past horrors did not exist. This is a guerrilla war and there is no safe place to come home to. To those who have been blessed to have survived this ordeal, we will not feel safe as long as we have memories.

In the end, we may all have to burn our hopes and memories with the belief that, like pinecones, the fire will release the seed to have something new begin to grow.