Hmmm, is this summer of disconcerting drought and discontented super heroes the living symbol of the dark night of the disenfranchised in our midst?
We are suffering through an increasingly troubling drought in this area. It has been well over a month since we’ve had a rainfall of any significance. The ground is parched. The marshes are shrinking leaving frogs and turtles competing for the last few inches of water. Trees, bushes and shrubs are withering by the day.
And while we wait anxiously for even a brief thunderstorm, we’re breaking records for high temperatures and coping with humidity that is hitting 40? Celsius and higher on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, we’ve been rocked by the news of violence and bloodshed in our own cities and in our neighbours to the south. No so long ago we shook our heads at the shooting spree that sent shoppers at the Eaton’s Centre scrambling for cover. More recently, gunfire erupted in Scarborough taking more innocent victims.
And this week, TV and radio brought us the horrific news of the lone gunman who donned a gas mask and walked through a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” shooting apparently at random killing and wounding dozens.
The producers of the latest incarnation of Batman couldn’t have known that their casting of the caped crusader as a discontented and reluctant super hero would resonate on another level entirely. Yes, they were clearly playing on the double entendre in the movie’s name. But how deep that parallel would go must be leaving them at a loss for words.
It may just be the maker of metaphors in me. But I can’t help but wonder if Mother Nature isn’t sending us a message with this prolonged drought. We hope for rain and are disappointed when it fails to come.
But the disenfranchised souls in our midst are suffering a much more profound drought. The withering of their dreams for a better life. The increasing distance between what they need and what they must make do with. The gap, which begins to seem insurmountable, between what their heart’s desire and what their eyes see daily as their inescapable reality.
The drought of hope may be what pushes them to acts of senseless violence. Eventually, the scale tips that last few degrees and they begin to idolize the villains rather than the heroes. The last refuge of their withering souls becomes the act of lashing out and extracting payment in terror and in bloodshed.
We choose to think of nature as a mother figure – caring and nurturing us with the bounty of our earth. It may just be that a greater force resides there than we have yet conceived. One whose heart is breaking at what she sees and is reaching out to us through metaphor to open our eyes.
I hope it rains soon. We desperately need it. But I hope we also heed the deeper meaning and reach out to those whose hearts have run dry of hope. The price of looking the other way has become too dear.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: Batman · drought · hope · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · rain · The Dark Night RisesNo Comments