“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Bummer. It looks like God is trying to shake up the snow globe and try a do-over on humanity. Sucks to be you, mankind version 1.0.
"Biblical" is the only way to describe the catastrophe the Coronavirus is causing worldwide. Our entire infrastructure is collapsing before our eyes. Our children are around to see the end of a paradigm. Older generations are not prepared to adjust to a world where everything is different.
I look at Italy and despair. We may be going there.
Like you, I am trying to find some solace and comfort in anything. Last week I was disappointed that I lost my gigs. Today all I want to do is keep my children safe. My wife works in a city that had it’s first positive Coronavirus case today. I need her home, she’s the fourth missing piece of my family. Her work is in the process of having her work from home, thank God.
I had to make very difficult decisions lately, decisions I never thought I’d make. They lead me here, at home without steady work but with my family. I cannot compromise the people who mean the most to me. I won’t do it.
The truth is a strange thing, it can be bent to fit a narrative. The scientific facts about this outbreak didn’t align with a narrative bought and sold by those completely caught off guard by the seriousness of the past week’s events. That previous narrative became their “truth”. The “truth” and the facts didn’t get along very well.
The Ark
In ancient times the truth was not necessarily the same as facts either. Did Noah literally put two of every animal species except for unicorns on a gigantic boat to spare them the death that would befall the rest of all mankind?
….Probably not….
But there is evidence of flooding around the world from very ancient times. So it makes you wonder if there was a flood and it was really bad and the story we kept from that time was memorable enough to remain today, then why that story?
The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
2 Take with you seven [1] of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.11In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. [2] [3]21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished--birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
-Genesis 7
Let’s suspend disbelief for a moment and look at what the story is trying to say, remember kids…
Truth doesn’t necessarily equal facts
So what about this could possibly be true from a narrative standpoint? Well, maybe God finding Noah righteous in this generation means something like, “Noah had his act together.”
Perhaps he was prepared for a catastrophe? Maybe Noah saw it sprinkling and became concerned while others ignored the droplets falling all around them.
Then it started to rain and he found some wood while others went about their business hoping it would pass.
When the puddles came up to their heels he pulled out his hammer and nails while everyone else got their feet wet.
And when the flood was here he had a boat while others were completely caught off guard drowned.
And maybe there wasn’t just one Noah. Maybe there was a meta-Noah made up of all the individuals who helped save everyone they could.
So the story goes more like, “The rains came, society fell apart, people died. Then, a few brave people were prepared and saved everyone they could from the flood so that humanity could survive.”
And that’s what the story means.
What Is Our Innate Nature?
People are frightened and hoarding everything for themselves. I understand that. That is not a mystery.
Other people are sacrificing and giving away free meals and goods for people who need them. That is the mystery.
That is why I am in essence, not an atheist. What is it about man, (these vicious, biting chimps) that make us do good for others while we could just as easily take everything for ourselves and leave nothing for anyone else?
From a strictly biological standpoint, why would we care for someone we don’t even know? Why would we sacrifice what we have for someone who has given us nothing?
Maybe because if society functioned as a zero-sum game it would be absolute mayhem and we would have never even made it this far. The only way we can continue is to preserve that kindness towards others. That willingness to do good rather than harm.
The Helpers are the Heroes
I wish I could tell you that everything will be okay. I don’t know. I have cried more in the past two days than in the previous ten years. I put my kids to bed and pray to keep them safe from one day to the next. All I can tell you is to look for the helpers, look to the heroes. Be like that. Model that.
Build your Ark so that when the flood comes, you can help others make it too.
Please stay safe. Please take care. When I see you in person, it will be when this is over and I will hug you and show you how glad I am that I know you and you share this dry land with me once again.
-Phil