The metaphor du jour for me today is tsunami. Doesn’t it appear we’re all living through one? Every day now, it seems, those of us who are awake and alert to current events are hit by increasingly tall, crashing waves of horrifying news that leave us gasping and nearly broken.
(Stock image from Pixabay)
As ever, I grope for metaphors as though they were life rafts.
Real tsunamis (from the Japanese word meaning “harbor wave”) are colossal ocean waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the sea. Tsunami waves can reach as tall as a ten-story building, travel up to 500 miles per hour, and stretch more than 60 miles long. They give little warning. The official advice is: RUN TO HIGH GROUND RIGHT AWAY. (Watch this short video on what to do: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Sk-4Wcrfcoc .)
Using my tsunami-metaphor for what we’re experiencing now from the onslaught of horrendous news that’s flattening our spirits to the point of near despair, I’d say we’d be wise to seek higher spiritual ground right away.
For me – and perhaps all my fellow English majors as well – this higher ground can be found in great literature, fine poetry, and sacred texts. (Other majors may well gravitate to other high roads, equally efficacious, but I’m not as familiar with them.)
Now is the time — to give only one small example — to read, or reread, Victor Hugo’s 1862 masterpiece Les Miserables to gain, or regain, a better perspective on things. Now is the time to memorize whole or parts of poems that serve to mobilize or uplift the spirit, such as this portion from Sylvia Plath’s poem “Channel Crossing,” which has always inspired me:
… what better way to test taut fiber
Than against this onslaught, these casual blasts of ice
That wrestle with us like angels; the mere chance
Of making harbor through this racketing flux
Taunts us to valor. …
Now is the time to open our little leather-bound Bibles or tattered paperback copies of the Koran (like the one I read and reread when I lived in predominantly Muslim Mali, West Africa, for three years nearly thirty years ago) and review the underlined passages that once buoyed our spirits and promise to do so again now in these tumultuous times.
Like the Psalms of the great and beloved King David of the Old Testament, always beseeching his God for help and strength:
“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou has been a shelter for me, and a strong tower… ” (Psalm 61:1-3).
I’m reminded of the old hymn, “Higher Ground,” that I used to sing in church when I was a teen, the refrain of which was then etched on my brain:
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven’s table land
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
(Hear the whole hymn here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueDwRMtJCfg&list=RDueDwRMtJCfg )
This flight to higher ground is not an abandonment of our responsibilities to help others in need. On the contrary, it’s the only way we can proceed. Once our spirits are renewed and restored, we can take whatever positive actions we choose to take. Think of flight attendants’ instructions in case of emergency: Put on your own oxygen mask first in order to be able to assist those beside you. Think of the peaceful spiritual power of the Black church led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. in the ‘60s.
The countless catastrophes we’re facing on the news and in our lives these days – the crumbling democracies, rising authoritarianism, climate crises, technological threats; the cruelty, inhumanity, and injustices coming at us in colossal waves – are too big for most of us to grasp yet impossible to ignore or deny. We need, I believe, to reach up higher, to whatever Higher Power we recognize, by whatever name we use (writer Anne Lamott calls her conception of God “Gus” – for the “Great Universal Spirit”) for help. That is, if we really want to survive.
Now is the time.
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Please share your own methods of reaching higher ground in the Comments for all WOW readers to benefit from. All thoughts and suggestions are more than welcome!
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GREAT perspectives and advice, Bonnie! Thanks for posting it.
Thanks so much, Mikel! Best wishes to you, BB
Thank you for writing this now. With our belief system of the land we live in crashing all around us ‘tis truly the time to seek higher ground. I’m still in shock that so many continue to support this evil. It breaks my heart and darkens my soul. Even when the dust settles and we begin to resurrect this incredible experiment how will we be able to unite the evil with the good? The empathetic with the uncaring? How can it resolve? As always thank you for your thoughts and eloquence. My mom was also an English major fyi. Besitos y brassas fuertes mi amor.
Thank you for this, dearest Kimberly. Your input means a great deal to me. Yes, it seems to me that if we are going to survive this it will only be if we reach higher ground than the Trump tsunami can reach. That means we have some climbing to do! — Abrazos to you, BB xx
Well said, Kimberly. There have always been fascists and neofascists in this country. But they have never gained this kind of power. We will just have to wait and see how they destroy themselves with it.
I would really love front row seats.
Wouldn’t we all? Well, all who are reading this anyway.
Very inspiring querida Bonnie! I am listening to the hymn right now. Beautiful.
Gracias, querida Te! Yes, I’ve been listening to it repeatedly. It’s quite soothing! — xoxox
True — we can only be helpful if we ourselves are centered and find ways to sustain hope and energy. Thank you Bonnie
Yes, I so agree, querida Kim. Gracias! — xx
Oh,yes, Bonnie, we must reach for higher ground, whatever represents that to us, or we will be
inundated by the waves of bad news that unfold moment by moment. I vacillate from curling up in a ball and wanting to escape through my painting, reading poetry, listening to soft, peaceful music–to screaming out at Protests, raising my fist and my signs in anger, but that doesn’t seem to assuage the personal anger and fear I have–we are losing our democracy!
Yes, Sher, I know what you mean. I go back and forth, too, between wanting to sleep through this nightmare and wanting to be wide awake and DOING something positive to try to make a difference. Adelante!
Thank you for your inspiring post. Each day I have less and less hope that our democracy can survive this, but for at least tonight at least your words offered me the strength to reach some higher ground.
Yes, you’re not alone, dear Barbara. It gets too discouraging. I’ve been singing that old hymn (to myself) as I walk along, to try to keep my spirits up. — Abrazos to you, BB xx
I wept the first time I read this, and the second time I read this, and again when I listened to the hymn. The words I needed to hear. Thank you Bonnie, for pointing us to higher ground. Anna
Thank YOU, Anna, for all that you do — and have done — to point people to higher ground.
Thank you for this, Bonnie. It really helps when one widens one’s perspective. Literature is so effective at doing that. History also works, because it unendingly reveals the cyclical nature of humankind. We’ve long forecast the fall of the United States based on the fall of Rome. (Thinking of The Annals, by Roman historian Tacitus, especially regarding the corruption and degradation of the politicians and emperors. We “the little people” can only do our own part in keeping our hearts open and bending our own moral arc toward justice.
So true, Be. The main difference between current events and ancient history, though, as I see it, is that we’re now dealing with en entity (A.I.) that is well on its way to becoming humans’ overlords. And the as-yet unanswerable question is: Will it be a benevolent overlord or not?
Bonnie dear. Loved your blog and would like to add Now is the time to learn how to meditate. Have you noticed how many Buddhist monks are leaving messages on Facebook? That is not a coincidence.
Ruth Hayward
Thanks so much for this reminder, dear Ruth. Yes, meditate! And pray and sing and dance and paint and whatever else we can do to lift our spirits above the current horrors. No, I haven’t seen any Buddhist messages on my FB feed. Not yet, anyway. I hope you’re doing well. You’re always in my thoughts. — xx
Dear Bon,
We must all take care of ourselves, so as not to be disillusioned or demoralized by the wanton, intentional chaos that hovers around us. For me, reading offers a respite and a resurgence of spiritual energy, while also providing ethical strength and wisdom. I’ve heard others say they are now reading or thinking of reading Les Miserable. I would like to read it, but even I’m a bit daunted by its length.
I am now reading Walt Whitman’s Civil War. It is comprised of his writing from the three years he spent working as a “volunteer missionary” visiting the twenty-five hospitals set up in Washington to service the multitudes who were wounded during that war. It covers 1862 to 1865, so it’s contemporary with LM. It’s really quite inspiring, horrifying and beautiful at the same time. He took it upon himself to do good during a time that was probably even more chaotic than our own.
Love,
Paul
Beautiful, Paul dear. Thank you for your wise words. And thank you for the Walt Whitman recommendation. — Mucho love, BB xx