So we live every day as if the hammer might fall at any moment.

If I believed everything I hear, I just might think that something pretty major was going to happen today.  When I say something pretty major, I mean major like THE WORLD COMING TO A CLOSE.  Now I have the option of treating this news like the weird rumor I hope it is…or totally freaking out and shutting this blog down and going outside to yell at the sky and spin in the street.

Maybe it’s the worlds oldest practical joke? The Mayans were a culture known for their sense of humor, after all…maybe it’s just a joke that took a long time to set up. Imagine the glee the little Mayan guy felt when he set it all up….this calendar thing has a lot of room to yuk it up.  Sometimes a good set up is worth waiting for.

But…on the other hand…how embarrassing if it all turns out to be true?  I’m going to have to sit here with my finger on the delete button all day…just in case I have enough lag time before the planet splits apart to get rid of the evidence that I didn’t take it all seriously.  I’ve always felt…at least as long as my blog has existed…that the cultural record provided by my words was going to be invaluable to a future civilization.  It would be a drag to be considered a “false prophet” just because I didn’t support the end of the world.

Another cynical thought….one that just came to me…is the question of REM’s involvement in this whole escapade.  Imagine the royalties they must get just because their song is always included in the end of the world soundtrack.  Why wouldn’t they start the rumor that the world was ending?  What an amazing bit of marketing it all is.

In every “end of the world movie” I’ve ever watched, one of the motifs is that people use the end as an opportunity to set up some major parties.  We spent the night up in Asheville to celebrate our anniversary, and it was amazing how many deals on beer we could have gotten if we’d been able to wait until Armageddon.  I guess the lesson (lost on us…we don’t party hard) is that if you’re willing to wait until the very end you can get a great deal on a pint.  Staring over the rim of a pint of Guinness when you see the flash and hear the boom isn’t as meaningful as spending time with your family…but I guess that for some folks it might not be the worst way to go out.

The Bible talks about the end coming like “a thief in the night”….I don’t think the Mayans were our early (way early, actually) warning system. I don’t think we can pinpoint when it’s all going to be over…but I wonder if we hit a point where “it may as well be over” when we start to worry about the end. I used to be into the “survivalist mindset”…prepping like there really was no tomorrow.  My father’s take on it all was, “I don’t know why you’d want to survive some of that stuff”.  It was probably wise words from a laid back Norwegian. There’s a lot more to life than worrying about the final breath.

We used to duck and cover when I was little…but I can’t live out my whole life under my desk.

I hope you all have a happy 21st of December.