These charged and dangerous days, the sound of helicopters puts me on edge. Rationally, I know there is no immediate threat. We are safe, and so much more fortunate by accident of birth and privilege than many in the world as I write this. But there are threat sensors, perhaps activated during the pandemic and never fully soothed, that are stoked in me now by the visceral whap whap whap of the rotors. They have a martial character to them, a determined authority that brooks no resistance or conversation.