A Call for Lament (in the time of a global pandemic)
A while ago, I woke up from a nightmare. In this dream, I knew that my brother was in an upper level of an abandoned skyscraper, unconscious and badly burned, hooked into an IV that I did not know who operated. When I learned about his condition on the phone, I felt and heard a noise escape my throat - one I have only heard once before. The unmistakable, guttural cry of grief: someone is dead or dying. By the time I saw my brother’s body in front of me, in the dream, I woke up. It was dark. My body automatically turned over, bringing me to my knees and I prayed. With gratitude, gratitude that I knew, with almost certainty, that my brother was safe at home. Then grief washed over me again, because just as I knew my brother was fine, I knew that someone else’s brother was experiencing my dream as their reality. (more…)