gloom

I’ll apologize now

Gloom might seem to be an unexpected and unwelcome character to be hanging around with the Christmas season upon us. (Of course, the Holy Innocents in Matthew’s gospel — the victims of Herod’s mad quest to kill the messiah — would beg to differ. “Keep Herod in Christmas!”) Gloom cares not for those niceties.

Eeyore is the spirit animal for the gloomy.

Gloom would swallow us up, if given half the chance. And there seems to be all too many people willing to feed the beast.

I know someone who said, “I don’t want to muzzle my kids.” At the time, I was convinced she was ignorant. I mean that in the literal sense, “without knowledge.” For example, I firmly believed in the policies of Anthony Fauci and Andrew Cuomo. I now understand her perspective, though I can’t say I embrace all of it. Still, a creeping authoritarianism is spreading throughout the land, especially in places like New York — and especially in some other countries.

Shame and segregation are becoming the order of the day. Certain governments are pushing to be given power to forcibly detain and impose stern punishments.

We’ve been warned: Christmas and other winter activities will need to be scaled back. New lockdowns might be imposed.

I understand not everyone agrees with me. I offer my apologies! That’s why I said in another blog, “Zebraview takes as its model the zebra, which bears stripes opposite each other. And yet, those seemingly intractable forces work together for the sake of life — and zebras are alive!” In other words, we can address those differences without a polemical tone. (That is, we don’t have to be jerks about it!)

I hope I’m not being a jerk!

Having said that, I insist that doom and gloom do not get the last word. There is a living Word who is the light shining in the dark. Together, we are invited to share the light. To keep pushing the metaphor, our interaction, our conversation, can produce more light and less heat.

As the prophet said, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined.”