The mist

1. Just in passing, I'm sure everyone has already heard California has declared a state of emergency and is on mandatory lockdown. The governor mentioned the possibility of martial law, but later issued "clarifying remarks". I guess California is taking Italy's strategy.

2. It's interesting how life imitates art in our coronavirus pandemic. I'm sure examples could be multiplied.

A recent one is the film Five Feet Apart. I've only seen the trailer. The main characters appear to have cystic fibrosis, but that's where the analogy breaks down, because cystic fibrosis isn't infectious. Rather it's a genetic disease. But the social distancing fits.

3. Of course, movies like Contagion and Outbreak are obvious. There's likewise some overlap with the apocalyptic genre in general.

4. I suppose the pandemic has some parallels with Stephen King's The Stand. Thankfully COVID-19 isn't Captain Trips.

5. Perhaps one of the more apt parallels is Stephen King's The Mist.

Basically the film is about a group of strangers stuck together in a supermarket while an impending mist gradually surrounds them and traps them inside.

Man-eating monsters lurk outside in the mist. So people can't venture outside without taking their life into their own hands. Without risking death.

However, as scary as the mist and its monsters are, there are monsters lurking inside with them too: their fellow human beings. Which monsters are worse? Both are bad, but one is in the open, while the other is hidden. The difference between a massive fire-breathing dragon and a slithering snake in the grass.

We can sympathize with their confusions and frustrations at the beginning. No one seems to know or understand what's happening. They're thrust into their predicament after a storm hits the town.

Some immediately take on a "survival at any and all costs" mentality. Others are more selfless at first, but that changes too.

As the story progresses, we begin to sense increasing mistrust and distrust. We begin to see the heightened fear in their eyes.

We feel the growing panic. The fevered paranoia. It breaks out in yelling and screaming and fighting. People take sides. Form factions.

So, in the end, one by one, individuals are picked off. Either by the monsters outside or by the "monsters" inside, as people realize there's no escape. Death - or a worse fate - awaits them all.

6. In short, it's instructive to witness how some people are responding to this pandemic.

It's like they're stuck inside a locked gas chamber with the gas diffusing across the room and inching toward them by degrees. There's nowhere to run, but some people will still claw and scratch one another to savor a few more moments in the corner farthest away from the steadily approaching poison.

It's also somewhat reminiscent of Camus' The Plague as well as Sartre's No Exit.

By contrast, Christians need not fear death. We know this life isn't all there is. Death isn't the end - or worse. There is an exit. There is a door. His name is Jesus: "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved..." (John 10:9).