I exhaled and we sighed collectively.
“There are a lot of heavy things going on right now.”
We shared our individual heavy things. The usual stuff of life. Work, family, friends with tough medical diagnoses.
And then there’s Afghanistan. I barely have words for the humanitarian crisis that’s going on. A crisis that perhaps could have been averted. There are effective ways of dealing with evil in the world – ways that won’t be palatable to one hundred percent of the people one hundred percent of the time, and then there are ineffective ways.
And then there’s Covid. Case numbers are surging here in the US, like in many parts of the world. The anti-maskers are still vehemently anti-mask. The anti-vaxxers are still vehemently anti-vax. Since hospitalizations and deaths are about ninety-nine percent unvaccinated (or at least high nineties), my advice is get vaccinated. If you’re among those blessed souls who have been advised against Covid vaccination (now or at all) by a legit healthcare professional familiar with your medical history, I’d say hunker down and return to hermit mode as best you can until this surge passes. Please don’t self-diagnose yourself (yes, that phrase is probably redundant) as ineligible for the shot – ask your doctor.
Here in Ohio our legislature passed a law giving themselves the power to immediately rescind any health orders issued by the governor or public health director. Soooo … in the event of a public health emergency – you know, like a pandemic – basically it’s everyone for themselves. Soooo … when my actions in public can have a profound effect on the health of others …
Now you know why I’ve been living the hermit life through much of the Covid pandemic.
Indeed, if our state had less thoughtful and qualified leaders making public health decisions over the last year+, we would have been in a pickle. Balancing health, individual rights, and the economy isn’t easy. And there needs to be a balance. So I get what the legislature was getting at.
But eh, what’s a few more dead and disabled.
“And then there’s the earthquake in Haiti.”
“That’s it! I knew there was something else big, I just couldn’t remember what it was. Ugh. It’s all a lot.”
A large percentage of the prayers in the bible are laments. There’s a whole book in the Old Testament called Lamentations. Many of the Psalms are laments – the Google gives me quite a range, so we’ll leave that research for another time.
If there were ever a time for lament, now seems like a good time.
Lament, read some laments, and pray over all the lamentable things.
It’s all heavy lifting.
