May 20, 2011

• The End of the World

  “This may not be the end of the world, but you can see it from here.” It’s been a joke, a tee-shirt, a bumper-sticker, and probably a sign in someone’s front yard.  There’s a group of people wh’ve been touring the country for months proclaiming that tomorrow, May 21, 2011 will be the end of the world.  Judgment is coming.

  The world ends for about 200,000 someones every day.  It also begins for about 490,000 more.  That daily increase in the human population deserves a few blogs all its own, but not tonight.

  One way or another, the world will end tomorrow for the people who believe in this prophecy.  Either the world will actually end, in which case, I hope it does it before I have to clock in at 10:00 for my Saturday shift.  Or, it will cease to be the world in which their beliefs have meaning.

  There are 365 days in the year.  Every year I live through the anniversary of my entry onto this plane.  And every year I pass unknowing through the day that will one day be the bookend of my life.  Most years my birthday has been a pretty quiet and mostly unmarked occasion.  The pre-versary of my death carries even less weight on my life.

  If the world did end tomorrow, would I be pleased with the way I spent my last day?  I went to work, was productive, shared moments of understanding with some fellow humans, shared breakfast with people I love, am about to share dinner with people I love, engaged in creative pleasures (with my beads), wrote a blog, played my move in Scrabble online, and even read a chapter in the book I’m enjoying.

  The day we start and the day we finish our lives aren’t nearly as important as the days that come between.  I haven’t always been content with my life.  I’ve felt trapped by my circumstances and choices, I’ve imagined that life would be better “if only.”  But as I look over who I am, what I do, and how I feel about the combination, my life is good. 

  The End.

  • 8:29 pm
  • 3 Comments