A woman at the supermarket kept making a noise I could not decipher. It was a sound that reminded me of the thin line between laughter and a sob, how the mechanics are basically the same.
In the parking lot I scrolled through predictions from health experts and historians of an awful autumn. Everything I click reads like one long jeremiad. Today I learned this term comes from Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet” who foresaw Jerusalem’s downfall and developed the “city lament” in which collective grief blurs with nostalgia for god’s kindness in the past.
These are biblical times. The pandemic continues. Evacuations in Northern California as more fires burn. The area has experienced ten thousand lightning strikes over the past three days. Meanwhile, a former president issued a grave warning that our current president is a threat to democracy. I registered to become a poll worker on Election Day.
