And thou hast cast me forth into the deep in the heart of the sea, and a flood hath compassed me: all thy billows, and thy waves have passed over me. And I said: I am cast away out of the sight of thy eyes: but yet I shall see thy holy temple again.
Jonah 2:4-5
Neville Shute wrote a book that had a very powerful impact on me, called On the Beach. In it, a noxious radioactive cloud is trapped by the prevailing winds in the northern hemisphere, where a nuclear war had just ended civilization. The southern hemisphere was spared, if only temporarily. That cloud begins seeping south, however, and the characters of the book (set in Australia) live out their last days in keen awareness of the inevitability of their end.
That synopsis doesn’t do it justice. I regard it as one of the best books I’ve ever read. It presents the world, as the Nihilists see it, and the raw despair that flows from a life with no intrinsic meaning.
This book was on my mind recently because I made a fleeting connection between it and Coronavirus: An invisible doom, slowly creeping across the earth, noticeable only by the news from cities it reaches (in the book’s case, the cessation of news; in the virus’ case, the abundance) and how society copes with actions beyond their control.
This is unique among disasters as well. The only comparison in terms of national scale I can think of is 9/11. In 9/11, the entire country was affronted by a single shock, and were stirred to action and a showy display of unity. Everyone experienced it the same way, and even today everyone has a story to tell about it. The shock could be processed all at once, and the doom only came for a few. So all of America processed events at roughly the same time and in roughly the same way.
Coronavirus, in contrast, is a slow burn, like the noxious clouds in Neville Shute’s parable. Not everyone knows how to deal with it, and people have been scared into their homes. Everyone is dealing with it differently, and the longer it goes, I’m noticing the more confused everyone is getting.
It has highlighted a stark contrast in how people view the world. The transcendent obviously giving a measure of calm to people. Some people bend more to their work, some people turn more to God, some people feel like they are being swallowed up by the tide of things or suffocated by the inexorable cloud of doom.
In the book some people did the same, though with more emphasis on fleeting materialist pleasures. The inevitability of the two situations is very different, so in our case people are seeking normalcy and in the book the characters sought escape.
Neville Shute took his title On the Beach from the Royal Navy euphemism for being retired. It also is an oblique reference to TS Eliot’s The Hollow Men. Others have made the connection to Walt Whitman’s On the Beach at Night. All three, in some way or another, reference the end of things.
As I’ve discussed previously, bodies of water (particularly rivers) hold an interesting place in the Human psyche. The transition from land to water represents a distinctive change in nature. And this is where I made the connection to Jonah.
Jonah made the transition from land to water in trying to flee God’s command to preach to Nineveh, and in doing so he was swallowed by a whale. Jonah died. This is not how the parable is commonly told. Jonah died and his soul cried out from hell. He transitioned from living to dead.
When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer may come to thee, unto thy holy temple. They that are vain observe vanities, forsake their own mercy. But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee: I will pay whatsoever I have vowed for my salvation to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land.
Jonah 2:8-11
And he called out to the Lord, and only through the Lord did he transition from the sea to the land, and proceed to Nineveh. This is what we need to remember as a society. That even at the darkest hour, God can bring us peace. He does not give us anything we do not ask for. The Nihilists of Neville Shute’s parable would have had peace; those panicking due to the pandemic could have some measure of calm. Christ isn’t calling us to Nineveh, he’s simply telling us to pick up our Cross and follow Him. Sometimes, we have to transition out of the sea, out of a crisis to realize it.
When we do, we’ll be looking off to Calvary, standing with Jonah on the beach.
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 