Pandemic Jubilee


It’s Saturday. Walking rapidly, you are almost at the school’s back lot where, like every other Saturday in summer, the neighborhood gathers for a brisk game of whiffle ball. You aren’t concerned at being late. You have the ball. The game won’t start without you.

You round the final corner and sure enough. The gang is all there. You see the fat orange bat on the ground by home plate. It’s not your favorite but you know the crowd will soon relish your crack of plastic on plastic. As your team’s slugger, you will be first up, and with this bat every pitch is a homer…or close enough.

The pitcher walks from the mound as you approach, and you toss him the whiffle. But he doesn't turn back around. Surprised, you watch him continue walking towards you, his feet skipping like he's won a free dilly stick from the Dairy Queen.

“Listen,” he says excitedly. “I did some math and guess what?”

You don’t know.

“If you subtract 50 from 2020 you get 1970,” he says, his eyes boring into yours.

Okay... you hope he can’t read your mind.

“Don’t you get it? That was the year time began.”

Again, you hope he can’t read your mind.

“I’m talking about Unix. On January 1, 1970 computer timestamps all around the world showed 00:00:00 UTC.  Its how computer programmers mark time, and it started EXACTLY 50 years ago. It’s gone up one second at a time from then on. Bbbut that’s nnnot all.”

He always stutters when he is excited. But then, you do too, truth be told.

“Subtract 50 from 1970 and you get 1920! The Spanish Flu OFFICIALLY ENDED in April 1920. And here we are in 2020...and we are in ANOTHER global pandemic!”

You try to make your face look supportive and interested, but he sees through you.

“Doncha get it? Haven’t you studied the Bible? I’m talking about Jubilee. God told Israel to rest every seven years and then every 50 years to do a full reset called Jubilee. During Jubilee, Israel was supposed to reset everything—free the poor, give back to everybody what had been taken away, and give the earth a break by planting nothing and living simply for a year. But it didn't do that. Not even once. Then, Israel went into exile for 70 years. That's one year of punishment for every missed Jubilee. I betcha that’s what God's doing RIGHT NOW with this pandemic. I bet God is shouting at the whole 2020 world. Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?” He whips his arms around, cheerleader-fashion.

You look at the other players. Enthusiasm fires a few faces. Incredulity shadows others. Sighing, you pluck your ball from the pitcher’s waving hand. There will be no game today. You turn to walk home.

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