This Dark Night of the Soul

The world and everyone in it is facing a test unlike any it has seen before

“One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.”

― Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

“This is not a test.” It’s what you hear when a siren goes off, an alarm sounds or an emergency alert beeps on your cell phone. It means that, whatever the situation is, it’s serious, it’s dangerous, and if you want to survive, you’d better follow instructions.

The COVID-19 crisis is not a test in the sense of drill meant to prepare, but it is a test of our character, faith, and resilience.

The arrival of COVID-19, like so many critical events in world history, was not accompanied by fanfare. No searchlights scanned the skies for danger, sirens were silent, and soldiers didn’t take to the streets.

There was just a subtle awareness that grew with each day, each report, each statistic, that we were in serious trouble.

The last time the Earth stood still

On September 11, 2001, when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the situation was similar. The decades-long practice of interrupting our “regularly scheduled broadcasting” to test the emergency alert system appears to have been a fruitless exercise. We were never alerted.

At first, we thought it was an accident. We were concerned, but if we didn’t live in New York, or have people we cared about there, it might as well have been a typhoon in an unknown country. It was sad, but it didn’t affect us personally.

Then another plane hit the Pentagon, and another crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Gradually, it dawned on us that this wasn’t an accident; it was an act of terror, and we, wherever we were, could be next. COVID-19 is a natural disaster, but it instills the same kind of fear. Everyone is at risk.

The events of 9/11 still impact our lives 19 years later. Laws that protected our privacy have changed, border crossings have become more complicated, and hate crimes against people of Middle Eastern extraction have increased.

The same pattern is emerging in the wake of COVID-19. What the lasting impact will be is uncertain, but new restrictions on travel are in place and, because the virus originated in China, hate crimes against those of Asian extraction have gone up.

Choosing sides

Officials and individuals struggle with the concept of safety. Is it safe to leave our homes? Is it safe to fly? Is it safe to let foreign nationals into our country?

World leaders and officials may try to use the crisis to further agendas far beyond the causes of public safety. In the United States, as well as in other nations, the crisis is being highly politicized.

For the last few years, our country has experienced an increasingly fractious struggle between conservatives and liberals. Half the country has been conditioned to distrust and disdain the other half. Most of our media outlets threw impartiality to the wind years ago. We don’t know who to trust.

A situation ripe for exploitation

Some corporations are providing unprecedented aid to those most severely impacted, while others see the crisis as an opportunity to make a fortune.

Individuals are not immune to the lure of easy money either. As soon as people discovered that toilet paper and hand sanitizer were hot commodities, price gougers descended upon Amazon and eBay en masse. The world is in a pitched battle between light and darkness.

Will this be your finest hour?

We see great acts of heroism and self-sacrifice among people from all walks of life every day now.

Our health care workers, first responders, truckers, delivery people, grocery clerks, and so many others are making superhuman efforts to hold the virus and its attendant consequences at bay.

On NextDoor, neighbors post offers of help to those in need. Parents are caring for their children, supervising their education, and entertaining them all while trying to work from home.

Teachers are going above and beyond to make distance learning work for their students. But as much as is being done, it isn’t nearly enough.

Everyone needs to get involved if we are going to get through this thing without it compromising our values and utterly destroying our way of life.

Whether it’s singing “Happy Birthday” to a lonely old man over the backyard fence, or donating your entire COVID-19 Economic Impact Payment to your local food bank, you’re helping make things better.

When things get better, even a little better, hope grows, and hope is a powerful thing. It is also contagious. Help it go viral, and do it with love.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. “

— Winston Churchill

©2020, Denise Shelton. All rights reserved.

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