Hurricane Melissa & The Derangement

 

9 

Proclaim this among the nations: 
Consecrate yourselves for war;  stir up the warriors.
Let all the soldiers draw near; let them come up.
 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears;
    let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”

 

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

    The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth shake.
But the Lord is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

                                                Joel 3: 9-10, 14-14 NRSVue 

Derangement 

the state of being completely unable to think clearly or behave in a controlled way, especially because of mental illness. 

One of our neighbours on our suburban court is originally from Jamaica and still has family there. If I see him out and about I'll ask after their wellbeing in light of the ominous advancement of  what is described as "catastrophic hurricane Melissa." We can hear the term Category 5 and realize that it means devastation but here in Canada we are not in the direct path of a storm of this magnitude and hope that we never will be. The experts tell us that Melissa could be the worst storm event for Jamaica in the 175 years that records have been kept and that climate change is without doubt a contributing factor. 

What is in store for us in this country given that we are already seeing significant changes in weather and climate with milder Winters, drought, and intensifying heat? And why do we seem incapable of changing our destructive ways? 

I'm in the final pages of the latest novel by venerable and lauded Ian McEwan. Reviewers are describing it as his best book in a while and I would agree. The plot is not easily described although an essential thread is the academic and physical sleuthing of two English professors who are living in the early 21st century. They are determined to unearth a series of missing sonnets by a celebrated poet of our era, poetry that has shaped the outlook of a post climate apocalypse society even though the works are known only by reputation. 

This Britain of the future still functions but as with the rest of the planet it does so in a drastically diminished way.  There is still an internet and Artificial Intelligence which is important because so much of the physical heritage of nations has been destroyed by catastrophic -- there's that word -- weather events and the seas have risen as predicted. The British Isles are now a series of archipelagos created by what is termed The Inundation. Travel is limited and dangerous. 

There is another term, The Derangement, which is used a number of times. This is what appears to be, from the vantage point of the next century, the willful ignorance of the scientific evidence about what is unfolding until the tipping point of no return. 

Are we deranged? I am moving toward dismay as I watch our newly minted Prime Minister Carney commit billions of dollars to military spending, enthusing about becoming an "energy superpower" (aka increased fossil fuel production), and stepping away from his previously stated climate commitments. And he is supposedly the adult in the room of Canadian politics. Despite the calm demeanour it seems like madness to me.  

One of today's lectionary readings is from the book of the prophet Joel and it contains strong warnings to move away from militarism or there will be dire consequences.  There is a note of hope in these verses. Accept God as our refuge and turn from foolish ways. Our Prime Minister is a practicing Roman Catholic so he might read scripture and heed the teaching of Jesus who said "those who have ears to hear, let them hear"