Many now have an
enforced sabbatical. Sabbath: the day on which it’s permissible to work in
order to save lives. An island of peace, a continent of divinity, made for
humanity, not humanity made for it. Islands afraid of limited resources,
surrounded by seas of compassion.
Sagas produced solidarity in Iceland island, reporting
the coming of Christianity to the North. Islands which no man is, in times of
the plague. The word ‘quarantine’ meant 40 days: ships as islands, refused
permission to land, originally in Venice in 1377 when infected ships were
already freighted with disease. Also see ‘quarentyne’ (15th
century): the desert where Christ fasted for 40 days. Jung would say 40 is an
archetypal number. Quarantine is an archetypal state.
Lent, Lenten, based on Germanic roots for ‘spring’
refers to 40 days of fast for all. Some now fast who formerly were fed of our
charity: street people, homeless, refugees. Asylum seekers are on islands of
risk where a false touch perils all. Infection stalks. Continents are islands,
with moats. Every house an island, with quartermasters: quartarius, a fraction.
Bodies are islands, boarded by fright. Christ refused
the kingdoms of this world. Lord have mercy on us all.
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