Did you know that you can have a purposeful, meaningful, and even joyful experience in times of disaster? I am convinced that this is often the case having read Rebecca Solnit’s book, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, in which she maintains through intensive research, persuasive interviews, and personal experiences, that although this claim is counter-intuitive, it is nonetheless true. Jenny Odell recounts in her book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, that due to a sudden and frightening experience she had with a stranger one day, she became acutely aware of a deeply felt responsibility and connection to her neighboring community and fellow citizens. Odell makes some startling revelations about human nature in times of trouble, referencing Solnit’s book to further advance her belief that we need to aspire to give greater attention to and take better care of people in our communities, particularly in distressing situations. One of Odell’s revelations that I found to be particularly surprising was that out of tragedy oftentimes comes help and care from virtual strangers, a revelation that Solnit also writes about in her book. Odell quotes a Nicaraguan poet, Giaconda Belli, who lived through the 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua, who tells Solnit in an interview:
All of a sudden you went from being in your house the night before, going to bed alone in your own little world to being thrown out on the street and mingling with neighbors you might not have said hello to very much or whatever and getting attached to those people, minding them, helping, trying to see what you could do for one another, talking about how you felt (Odell 134).
Solnit’s primary goal in writing A Paradise Built in Hell is to argue that a “creative paradise” can be found in a hellish situation, that through a community’s resourcefulness, selflessness, and mutual aid, disaster victims can experience a temporary social utopia, through altruism, solidarity, social order, and even joy and exhilaration by helping others, not just family and friends but total strangers as well. Odell further agrees with Solnit’s assessment that exhilaration can be found amid disasters:
Solnit repeatedly finds survivors who recount the exhilaration of commingling with their neighbors and finding common purpose, making clear the necessity of emotional sustenance as much as material sustenance (Odell 134).
Solnit not only agrees with Odell that exhilaration can be found amid disasters; she also goes a step further by claiming joy can be found as well, quoting:
The joy in disaster comes when it comes from that purposefulness, the immersion in service and survival and from an affection that is not private and personal but civic: the love of strangers for each other, of a citizen for his or her city, of belonging to a greater whole, of doing the work that matters (Solnit 306).
Both Odell and Solnit give examples of how their attention to others has expanded as a result of their findings and personal experiences. Odell writes how her perception changed with her new way of thinking about how we are all morally obligated to one another, referencing Solnit’s writing about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake wherein Solnit quotes Pauline Jacobson’s article in the San Francisco Bulletin, “How It Feels to Be a Refugee and Have Nothing in the World, by Pauline Jacobson, One of Them.”
Never even when the four walls of one’s own room in a new city shall close around us again shall we sense the old lonesomeness shutting us off from our neighbors. Never again shall we feel singled out by fate for the hardships and ill luck that’s going. And that is the sweetness and the gladness of the earthquake and the fire (the catastrophic fire that ensued after the earthquake). Not of bravery nor of strength, nor of a new city, but of a new inclusiveness. The joy in the other fellow (Odell 135).
Odell also references Solnit’s example of how many communities rallied together to provide mutual physical and emotional support for their neighbors as they recovered from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, stating:
This is also a good place to return to Rebecca Solnit’s Paradise in Hell, in which ad hoc networks of support were erected in the wake of disaster by neighbors who may never have had the occasion to meet each other. Not only did these neighbors organize and provide each other with food, water, shelter, medical aid, and moral support — often crossing social boundaries or upending norms in order to do so — but these local, flexible, and rhizomatic networks often got the job done better, or at least faster, than the more institutional aid that followed (Odell 133).
The most obvious disaster our world is facing right now is COVID-19. It is currently the deadliest health disaster the world has had to face since the outbreak of the Spanish flu in 1918, caused by the H1N1 flu virus that infected 500 million people and an estimated 50 million deaths globally. Since the invasion of COVID-19 into the U.S. from January 21, 2020 — November 30, 2020, almost 13.3 million people have been infected with more than 266,000 deaths from the virus in the U.S. alone. Although Rebecca Solnit published her book in 2009, a decade before our current worldwide pandemic, her extensive research, interviews, and both verbal and written accounts of personal experiences provide indisputable proof that almost all disaster response by affected communities shows resilience and altruism in the midst of chaos and devastation. Solnit writes extensively about five major disasters that have devastated the U.S. in recent history, concluding that each initial disaster response by law enforcement agencies, federal emergency relief organizations, and wealthy, elitist politicians has been largely unorganized and slow to respond in the immediate aftermath of each of the disasters: the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the Halifax explosion in 1917, the Mexico City earthquake in 1985, the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the following paragraphs, I will validate Solnit’s conclusion as valid in the wake of America’s most recent major disaster, the coronavirus pandemic, showing how ineffective, dangerous, and terribly tragic the lack of response has been by the world’s most powerful man in the world: the President of the United States.
President Trump, up until mid-March of this year, has adamantly disregarded the Center for Disease Control’s proven scientific recommendations that U.S. citizens should wear masks when outside the home, maintain a social distance of at least six feet, and either stay at home (except for necessary travel) or gather in small groups (while maintaining the CDC’s pandemic recommendations of wearing masks and social distancing) in order to ward off what could result in financial disaster in the U.S. Not only has the disaster response been ineffective so far because of the President’s refusal to federally mandate these requirements, but he also adds fuel to the fire by almost never wearing a mask himself in public and openly mocking those who do. He personally disregards the CDC’s recommendation for social distancing, having conducted many press conferences, meetings, and social gatherings in close quarters where almost everyone follows the President’s lead and refuses to wear a mask. The CDC director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has from the very beginning of the pandemic, warned U.S. citizens that in order to control and consequently eliminate this deadly virus, all Americans should follow the CDC guidelines, even though President Trump consistently downplays the severity of the virus. As a result, many of the president’s supporters and others in his administration have chosen to disregard the scientific evidence as well, following the President’s lead without considering or caring about the dangerous effect such reckless behavior has on the general public. And to make things even worse, without federal measures in place to control the spread of the virus, the governor of each state has the authority to issue whatever measures he or she deems appropriate, i.e., closing businesses, schools, and/or public venues, in light of the potential catastrophic effects, while trying to minimize its impact on the U.S. economy, with the authority to re-open them at his or her discretion. As a result, COVID-19 infection in the U.S. has only continued to skyrocket and the death count in the U.S. is higher now than since the beginning of the pandemic. President Trump’s apparent lack of concern about the exponential increase of infections nationwide has become a disaster itself — a disaster created by him due to his refusal to use common sense measures to counteract the spread of COVID-19. Instead of encouraging and supporting a community of scientific experts to work to control the spread of the virus in an expeditious, efficient, and effective manner, the President has chosen instead to make his own decisions, decisions that have proven to be selfish and uncaring, and have resulted in astronomical proportions of illness and death. Throughout this monumental health crisis, President Trump remains seemingly dispassionate and unconcerned about the welfare of the nation’s citizenry, the antithesis of taking care of and providing for the community of Americans he has sworn to defend and protect. Despite the President’s seeming indifference to the tremendous negative effects all American’s are now facing from COVID-19, joy and exhilaration have been felt all over the country proving Solnit’s claim that much good can result from bad experiences. Exhausted front-line healthcare workers and the service industry have been shown displays of overwhelming gratitude by people all over the country, contributing and serving up meals, signs and posters in yards and windows sending positive messages of support, i.e., “Stay Strong” and “Show Kindness.” Joy and exhilaration can always be a strong counterpoint to adversity when we work together for the common good.
As Solnit relates, it is quite evident to me that the federal response to the five major disasters she wrote about in her book was ineffective and lagging. She makes a valid point in elucidating that powerful, wealthy elites and federal emergency disaster organizations have responded in the past by treating the victims of disasters as enemies and have sought to overpower them by using strong-arm tactics and even sometimes deadly force as a means of control. Although the current federal disaster response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been curtailed by an authoritarian president, I am confident that President-Elect Biden will institute a federal mandate of national mask wearing on the first day of his presidency, as he has promised American citizens, to rapidly and effectively control the spread of the virus. I believe that President-Elect Biden’s promise to counter the current failed COVID-19 response will result in an urgent, timely, and effective policy to manage and subsequently eradicate this deadly disease.
Odell tells us after having gone through the frightening experience she had with the woman having a seizure in her presence, she realized that other people are not just a stumbling block to get around to pursue her own selfish needs and desires. Rather than being annoyed that people are in our way, we should recognize every human life is just as important and valuable as our own. Odell references a portion of David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech that he gave at Kenyon College in 2005 that further emphasizes her point:
But if you’ve really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options (to see other people as inert beings who are in the way). It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars — compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things (Odell 129).
Odell further comments that if we want to break away from our self-centered existence, we need to recognize that it takes discipline, will, and attention (much like Buber’s I-Thou relationship we read about in her book) in order to be more compassionate and caring of others. Odell claims that she is often reminded of this when she rides the bus in Oakland discreetly watching her fellow passengers. While out in public, it has frequently been my observation that most people are self-absorbed and inconsiderate. I find it both sad and disappointing that so many people don’t seem to care about other people they encounter as they go about their daily lives. How difficult is it, if even for only a moment, to make the effort to take the time to pay attention to someone other than yourself? Just a smile on a friendly face could make a positive difference in someone’s day.
None of us should take our lives for granted. As I have already mentioned, it is important that we all need to take care of one another as well as ourselves. Unfortunately, I experienced my own personal disaster. In May of 2004, I had a craniotomy at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, to remove a benign brain tumor by a renowned and well-respected neurosurgeon. I went into surgery hopeful that I would sail through it without any complications (as I had been reassured by my doctor) to go back to living a normal life after recovery. However, I suffered a stroke during surgery and then another one the following day. I was on a ventilator for a week and on the verge of death. My community of family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues immediately came to my aid, generously and lovingly gifting me with their invaluable support by sending cards, flowers, prayers, and love. My personal faith in a loving, caring God has sustained me, giving me the strength, courage, determination, and perseverance to get well, as much for my loved ones as for myself. I am a living testament that the care and support of my community and a loving, compassionate God were instrumental in my recovery. It took several weeks of medical care, occupational, speech, and physical therapy to regain full cognitive ability and physical strength with the consistent help and on-going care of another indispensable community: my doctors, nurses, therapists, and healthcare staff. I owe the utmost gratitude to this dedicated and caring community of professional supporters, most of whom were strangers to me. Although I went through a very traumatic, painful, and almost fatal experience, I became unwavering in my goal to completely recover, in body, mind, and spirit, gradually regaining physical strength, improved cognition, and a deeper, more trusting relationship with God, throughout the long road to recovery. Now, looking back at this life-altering experience, I have come to realize that during that time, I had fully experienced my own social utopia, through the love, care, and support of both sets of supporters, personal and professional. A permanent, personal transformation has taken place in my life in the wake of this life-threatening experience. As both Odell and Solnit repeatedly claim in their books, I discovered firsthand the truth in their claims that joy and exhilaration can also be found through community support during and after a disastrous situation.
Finally, I would like to conclude that if we ever become victims of disasters, no matter how large or small, we can become more compassionate and caring individuals. Through painful trials come a more deeply felt sense of intimate connection with our fellow human beings. Our kinship with others in times of trouble can bring to the forefront an acute awareness of the subconscious need to care and provide for others, acknowledging that we are all interdependent on one another for our mutual well-being. When tragedy strikes, we should be quick to respond and resolute in purpose, ready and willing to unite with and help our neighboring communities to rebuild and repair the physical and emotional damage inflicted. We can even find joy and exhilaration in helping others as I did, and as Solnit attests to, when we all interact generously and compassionately as we reconstruct our lives, materially and emotionally. There is no question in my mind that we can experience a paradise in hell in times of disaster. Ultimately, it is up to each one of us to recognize our common humanity, moral responsibility to one another, and then just reach out with our hands and hearts to make this happen.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC COVID Tracker. January 21, 2020. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_per100K
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1918 Pandemic (H1N1) virus/Pandemic Influenza (Flu)/CDC. March 20, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html
Odell, J. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House, 2019. Kindle Edition.
Solnit, Rebecca. A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Kindle Edition.
