This was a post that was written following the unprecedented, unprovoked attack on, among others, a civilian population enjoying a holiday event last October, 2023…but, for whatever reasons, this didn’t see the light of day…to become published. However, I intended to use it to initiate a more regular blogging schedule, again, then move on from here:
Breaking the Silence…
Since the earlier post that heralded in the New Year of 2023, I have come through nothing short of a miraculous cancer journey, complete with surgery that removed the right section of my colon, an amazing recovery, and being declared ‘cancer-free’ all within the rapid-fire space of a three-month timeline…but that’s a story for another time. Suffice it to say, it’s now the right time to make a comeback…and, to begin to reflect and write and share my thoughts, again. So, this begins another phase in, what has proven to be, a rather intermittent, blogging journey.
Musings…
Very recently, I had occasion to gaze out my bedroom window at the shifting kaleidoscope of color in the leaves of the trees and these musings came to mind…beginning with concern about heightened fears of further COVID spread and feeding off the most recent current events rocking and shaping our world, beginning with the shocking terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, and the even more shocking response from around the world leaving me wondering: What comes next?!?
Sunday, October 22, 2023
The other morning when my husband drew back the bedroom curtains, I was immediately struck by the noticeable change in shade of the fall leaves beyond my window. There had been a subtle shift from the blazing, light-reflecting amber gold of the day before to a dull, faded yellow hue, with more bare branches standing stark against the morning sky as the tree released its shriveling leaves.
My first thought was that winter was on the way! There would be no more lingering gleaming, golden leaves, vying for attention against a bright blue sky, with touches of red in the landscape of neighboring shrubs, or with the still green foliage of the late turners standing in stark contrast.
It came with a twinge of nostalgia that what had been a lingering fall, with pleasant temperatures, sunshine and fall colors abounding, for weeks on end, would all over very quickly. The remaining leaves clinging to branches would flutter to the ground, carpeting the lawn with sodden, rather than crisp, brittle leaves.
Soon enough snow would cover the landscape with a uniform blanket of white, and we would be hunkering down to weather the dark, frigid, cold ensuing days of winter that would soon envelop our world.
It always catches me off guard that spring, summer, and fall, when all is said and done, seem to be so fleeting. In the blink of an eye, the bleakness of winter has returned and largely ignored, until it settles, unbidden, upon us.
Given the trajectory of our world, proven in the previous couple of years, as the flu season is once again upon us, I wonder if this might not be a metaphor for the potential of bleakness heralding in the rather unwelcome return of restrictions of social involvements and travel, involving again social distancing, masking and vaccine mandates, lockdowns and other impediments to carrying on even a semblance of what would be seen as normal social interactions and healthy community life. Might this be about to break upon us, once again, unwelcome, and as distasteful as enduring the same scenarios over the previous 2-3 years?
It may be that the pleasant return to near normalcy of the previous several months has lulled us into an expectation of the worst being behind us. Being able to enjoy the welcome ‘springtime’ of non-restrictive living for this past year or so, might have caused us to become complacent, or cling to an optimistic hope that it is really all behind us, and, surely, it could never happen again! Could it?
The re-introduction of restrictions, masking, lockdowns, and all the paraphernalia we have become familiar with, might surface yet, again, still fueled by a renewed pandemic of fear, pitting people against one another, in the guise of healthcare safety, as the desired response to another outbreak of the lingering COVID-19 viral infection that is rebounding, as it is wont to do. It is, after all, a virus, and that’s what a virus does, and it is, after all, fall, and moving into winter.
This time, though, I think it will be with an added twist…an even more blatant hostility to those who don’t ‘buy in’ to the narrative popularized by the political elites and mainstream media. It could well lead to violence against the outliers who will be cast as a threat to the health and wellbeing of all, in the pandemonium of very strident voices claiming that it is for the only good of the sake of safety for the community…and all who don’t comply are a dangerous threat.
I fear that, soon enough, the same vaccine mandates, travel restrictions and vaccine passports will all be re-instituted and the non-compliant will be even more vigorously hounded, harassed, isolated and driven to the fringes. more stridently than occurred in the first go-round of insanity that gripped the world 2-3 years ago. For the many, or any, who did not speak out before, who silently, conceded and went along with it, for whatever reasons, it will be too late to stand up and be counted anymore. They will all be swept up in the fearmongering and finger-pointing that has become so common place in our world of today.
The perpetrators of the only ‘acceptable’ woke narratives will show no mercy or reason, and it will be enough to ‘know’ that a person disagrees with the touted ‘party line’ to silence, marginalize, isolate, criminalize, and eliminate those with dissenting voices.
Any and all, and especially believing Christians, who try to stand against the injustices of loss of freedom, whether it be in silencing sane voices of dissent, or sounding the alarm for dehumanization, marginalization, hostility and hatred towards those whose voices differ from the mainstream, inculcated narrative which is being heard in the corridors of power, the halls of academia, the corporate towers, and the bellowing and blaring in our streets already, will be targeted in ways not seen in a long, long time.
We are graphically witnessing this kind of bigotry and alienation in the outcry against…not Hamas for the terrorism perpetrated on innocent civilian victims, within the boundaries of their own national boundaries…but against Israel who are a sovereign nation needing to protect their own innocent citizens from the atrocities of this deliberate, with malice aforethought, unprecedented terrorist attack.
As with the insidiousness of the creeping policies that broke in waves over pre-World War II Germany, that eventually saw millions swept up in the frenzy of hatred against the ‘enemy,’ the Jews of that day, we are already seeing them, once again, targeted in our cultural frenzy over ‘colonialist’ ideologies. It may soon sweep the whole world up into it. As we witness what the worst level of violence means for those who oppose what is taken to be the only ‘truth’ allowed. Battle lines have been drawn and, now, we can only wait to see how the violence and hatred begin to play itself out, as has already been paraded before us so graphically, in cities around North America, on university campuses, and in nations around the globe, including the horrendous mob attack on innocents arriving at a Russian airport where the mob fired warning shots at the police to stand back and let them maraud and hunt down Jewish travelers and threaten their lives and the Jewish students locked inside a University library while fellow students pounded on doors and windows trying to gain entry to get at them.
Civil discourse is no longer allowed, or even expected. There isn’t a place for dialogue or negotiation when the other person’s ‘right’ and freedom to believe differs from the accepted ‘narrative’ regardless of who is touting it. We have deteriorated to mob rule, where ‘might makes right’ when there is even a perceived variance from what is held to be ‘true’ by another person.
As the Jewish people are witnessing, what they thought was a haven in nations who declared loudly and vociferously, ‘Never again!’ has proven to be a false hope for them. And this is in danger of proliferating to the basest level of discourse, for the most mundane reasons.
Watch for more of this, across our peaceful, civilized democracies. Third World conditions in nations where despot’s rule will soon be evidenced, even in our local, small communities throughout Canada and the US where people believed they would always be safe. If the Jews are no longer safe in Western countries, then no one of any faith will be, either. Especially, if the enemy of our souls has his way. Today, more than ever, we need to PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!
Where should we be in all of this? What kind of persons do we want to be…and on which side?
I am reminded of a recent comment by an Israeli commentator who is a Messianic Jew…who has said, the enemy grounded in Hamas/Hezbollah operatives, are right now coming for the ‘Saturday people,’ but once they have done that, they are going to move on to attack the ‘Sunday people.’
Ending Our Life Well 