November on the other hand, is a month marked by changing seasons and weather. November, so it is said, is when skies tend to turn grayer as the climate transitions into Fall with Winter not very far away. The relative lack of sunlight during this time can play a prominent role in feelings of loneliness and depression.
There are other possible causes of the eleventh month’s undercurrent of foreboding and despondency. Whatever they might be, what I do know is this: if nothing else, November in isolation is a time of the year---Thanksgiving holiday notwithstanding---that is given to the dimness of individual emotions.
Suffice it to say, the idea of death can produce many dark corners in the mind. And from what is to follow here, November must receive its due as a memento mori of the Roman calendar.
As we speak, nowhere is this more evident than in November 2023 where the world is witnessing the violent fever of terrorism, revenge, and the horror and inhumanity that is being generated in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Russia’s sanguinary dissection of Ukrainian democracy continues inexhaustibly through its second November passing.
Namely, from my perspective, November 2013 was a stretch of the past to at once forget and to remember. Related to that narrow timespan, there stood out three cases that reminded me of the human condition being struck by a mortal blow. Of the three instances, two were very public. One was very personal.
In my own way, I memorialized this triptych of quietus in an article I wrote ten years ago. In composing it, I couldn’t help but feel like a poor man’s messenger of death. However, it was important to me to make a humble effort to try and enshrine these deaths in the collective and private memory. If I am fortunate to have you read my piece, then I think you will see why.
Here is the link to the 2013 article:
https://narrativesofresistance.blogspot.com/2013/11/death-in-november.html
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