There is Hope, There is Always Hope

A long summer comes to a close; for many businesses in the county, it feels as if the summer never began at all. The summer started with hope for a bang and has ended in a whimper. When I came to the Herald in May for summer work, I hoped to focus on the county’s recovery from Covid. But instead, the articles I wrote told the stories of restaurants forced to throw away thousands of dollars’ worth of food, evaporated Canadian tourism, party-spurred COVID outbreaks, and long-awaited construction projects again postponed because of the deadly virus.    
“There is hope. There is always hope.” I came downstairs last week with a new t-shirt; my grandmother immediately told me that she loves the message on the front. Kaworu Nagisa, a principal character in the ‘90s animated classic Neon Genesis Evangelion, walks toward the front of the shirt. I tell my grandmother: “well, this character dies brutally,” and she isn’t too pleased. “Why wear a shirt that speaks of hope so flippantly?” 
But it isn’t flippant. Kaworu does indeed die brutally; he is an “Angel” sent to bring about the convergence of human souls into a single collective consciousness. But he loves, and loves deeply; he loves the show’s protagonists, and hurts to see them suffer and hurts to see their individualism melted, even if he is to be the cause of it. Kaworu allows the main character to kill him because Kaworu loves him so deeply and painfully. Kaworu is slaughtered, but his hope for those alive remains. Hence the shirt. 
In a twisted way, Kaworu’s sacrifice for the greater good reminds me of this twisted summer and all the pain it has caused. I’ve seen death and suffering, even here in Cape May County. Many businesses here in Cape May County are fighting for their lives; my Mom and sisters and I are living paycheck to paycheck in a fight to pay the bills. I do not want to downplay the pain and death that has come with this disease; it has, and will continue to affect us until a vaccine is ready. 
Yet the sacrifices the county is making in the fight against Covid are remarkable. For all the grumbling on Facebook, I see more kindness and hope radiating from restaurant waiters, pool attendants, lifeguards, and hotel owners than I’ve ever noticed before. Maybe my eyes are just opening, maybe that’s on me. But it helps to remember that we are making these sacrifices for a greater good; I smile when life’s pain is overwhelming because there is another day that promises hope. Even if we can’t tangibly see the results, our mask-wearing and store closures are helping the country fight something none of us could on our own. 
And at the end of the day, that’s what Christ wanted. Christ died brutally for a hope not his own. We fight this virus, we do our best to smile, we tread along because there is hope for our country and hope for those we cannot even see. There is hope. There is always hope.