IT WAS in the news a year ago, but it was just yesterday when I chanced on it, maybe because I was more attuned to the melancholia generated by the words: My battery is low and it's getting dark.
Those were the last words sent out by Opportunity, the Mars rover that has defied its original design of being good for only 92 earth days and roved on from crater to crater for 15 years. Actually, they were not said in words. Instead, they were received in codes, fault readings, and measurements that when paraphrased into human words said that.
Opportunity was declared dead on February 13, 2019, over a year ago today, but only after eight months of incessant attempts to contact it got no reply.
How is it to be in the dark all on your own? Lucky, Opportunity, it's a robot. But this pandemic has blanketed many in darkness as well. And unlike rover Opportunity, no one is assigned to parse the lines of codes, fault readings, and measurements their depression is sending out.
Being a pranic healing practitioner, I've been in touch with depression since lockdown in March 2020. Some I healed, one I couldn't. It really depends on whether the patient wants to be healed and is thus receptive to healing energies. Otherwise, we can wave our hands till kingdom and nothing will come out of it. But that's another story.
How many are suffering alone when the world seems to be getting darker for them? How many of these were even chided for their "kaartehan"? How many times have we rolled our eyes over what we deem as trivial issues that some other can't get over with?
One thing is sure, the feeling of uncertainty is hitting more people more often these days than on any other day pre-pandemic. Just look around you and see the slowdown of business, which means retrenchments and major reduction in opportunities. For many, their family's source of income was the work they lost. Thus, one person's loss of job can mean dire straits for one family. When will things become better? We can never tell.
True, the vaccines are already arriving, but we have to wait for our turn. The healthy folk in their productive age aren't the priority. We wait until after the frontliners, the senior citizens, the indigents, and the uniformed personnel. All others wait. Among all others are those already eaten up by the uncertainties that have victimized more than the virus had. Them who are beaming codes, fault readings, and measurements that no one is taking the effort to read.
My battery is low and it's getting dark. This could be the message being beamed out by the thousands who are groping and hoping for survival amid this pandemic. But no one is reading. saestremera@gmail.com