Strong, Kind: Nana Beat the Plague Year

Strong, Kind: Nana Beat the Plague Year March 14, 2020

Our Nana beat the plague year, the influenza that killed so many in her school. She understood that life this side of the Heavenly City, a place she saw in a vision, was a time where bad things will happen, but that the arc of her story must be toward Jesus.

Jesus.

She was not afraid and when she described the plague year, the Depression, and personal problems that would have broken most of us she simply looked to God, was calm, and made some fantastic meatloaf, a recipe that appears to have gone to Paradise with her.

She had opinions, if you are reading this and you knew her, this goes without saying, and she was unafraid to say what she thought. When I was far from the Faith, really at the bottom, she slipped a note under the door (I still have it!) telling me to shape up! It was loving, but firm.

Do your duty, young man. It was heavily perfumed.

Thank you Nana. Say what must be said, but add some beauty.

Mayhap we are in another plague year. If so, there is no sense in cruelty, Does anyone wish to die with a snark on their lips? I would not die in that man’s company!

Rather, I prefer Nana and those like her who would go put on a pot of beans and prepare for tomorrow. Tomorrow is, after all, on the way. This too shall pass and when it does we will not be so proud of our hot takes, our justification of our own views, and our lack of solidarity with the suffering.

The sick are all sick the same.

This does not mean we have to pretend to agree. I remain, as always, a small government, social conservative, but that is not the issue just now. People are suffering, my neighbors are worried, and this is not the time to point out that trust in government is misplaced or other whatever deep insight I think I have.

Why?

Before all that, I am a Christian. 

Now is the time for kindness, love, and calm. Maybe this will pass as a small thing: good!

Maybe this will be a big thing: God help us. In either case, I would prefer to be like Nana: calm, making some food to share, and holding to my values.

What are the values of the traditional Orthodox Christian?

We have been and are victims of plagues, wars, brutal atheist, killer theist, regimes. Over two thousand years we have made enough errors that we cannot boast, preen, or pretend that we, as individuals, are right, good, or worthy. Instead, we look not to self, but to our ideals, loving all, even our enemies, yet with no moral compromise.

Nana had no truck with those who comprised their values to fit into the spirit of the age. Nana survived by refusing to whine while acting.

Time to keep the old values in new times with a faith that works. When tomorrow comes May we have not done or said foolish things, unkind things, but instead find God in a plague year.


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