In aftermath of Ida, people act as God’s foot soldiers

Whenever I teach “Frankenstein,” I find myself drawn to the novel’s opening letters in which we hear Walton anguishing over his lack of a friend, a lack of community.

That awareness for human contact and sociability becomes a thread in a novel that is often read for its focus on the destructive tendencies associated with the Enlightenment and the desire to be God.

I encourage my students to look at the repeated claims for sympathy, for community, for the request of humanity. “Listen to me” and “hear me” are oft-repeated phrases by the characters in the novel.

In some ways, students respond with curiosity. This isn’t the Frankenstein that they had imagined. Where’s the green monster? Where’s the horror? To this, I often shrug. The horror isn’t the creation of the creature; the monstrosity is humanity’s treatment of others.

In the past year, I’ve reflected a lot on community and the ways we treat other people. I’ve seen both sides of this situation – the hoarding and selfishness that marked the start of the pandemic but also the care and coming together of communities to take care of their own.

Hurricane Ida, too, has revealed the necessity of community.

When people evacuate, they rely on the eyewitness testimony of those who stay behind. Or they rely on “citizen journalists” to offer insight into what the area has faced and what they may come home to experience.

In these situations, we truly realize the importance of fraternity, in the 18th-century French Revolution aspect of the word. Before the Reign of Terror, the French Revolution inspired ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.

In its ideal form, what was needed at the time was the possibility of creating a society or community of people in which dialogue and equality were foundational components.

Not much has changed. We still strive for these things. We still rely on the aid of our community. And, nowhere does this basic fact assert itself more strongly than in the face of adversity.

To paraphrase author Jane Austen, “it’s a truth universally acknowledged” that we turn to our faith in times of crisis. When the flood departed, God sent Noah a rainbow as a reminder of his contract to never abandon humanity. That rainbow – a natural sign of God’s physical presence – is renewed in the New Testament with the dove and the Holy Spirit to the apostles, as a reminder that Jesus will never abandon his church.

Throughout our faith we have examples of the need for community and the need to “listen” to “hear” but also to act.

In Jesus we find living examples of his ability to act for the needs of those who are incapable of acting – those who have been lost or abandoned, those who have been marginalized and oppressed.

Our faith teaches us to build community, to come together not only in times of adversity, but in all times.

As we work to rebuild our homes and community in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, we can be physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit for others. We can be reminders of God’s work and love in our insistence on fraternity and aid.

Dr. Heather Bozant Witcher can be reached at [email protected].