Apocalyptiblog

Okay, since several of my posts have dealt with the end of the world in one form or another, it got me thinking:  why does the phrase "The End of the World" exist?

I mean, I used it as the title of a song in my musical Jonesing, which had an excellent premiere last month and is now being put together in a studio to hopefully send it out to many people. The phrase is everywhere, but it doesn't suprise or confuse me as much as the phrase "The End of Days" or "The Apocalypse." Both of these terms make a certain kind of sense:  The Apocalypse is an event, and events end. Days are measurements of time, so, of course, they end. But the end of the world itself - as if it were also an event, or measurement of time - is very strange to me.

See, the implication is that when we go, the world goes, too; it's an extremely self-centered idea, but then again, we are an extremely self-centered species. So far, we seem to be the only species in the history of this planet that stopped evolving and started changing the world around us to fit our needs, instead. We seem to be the only species that can truly contemplate the massive gulf of time, at least what came before us. So why is it so hard to contemplate what comes after us?

The realization of death is a powerful thing. There's tons to read on it, like here:  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/death/

Or, more abstractly, here:
http://dbanach.com/sisyphus.htm

And many places elsewhere. What I think is that, upon the discovery of death, which most of us make as a child, there are really two outcomes:  acceptance, and denial. From these outcomes spring much of the rest of our lives, how we define purpose, beauty, love, direction, balance... everything. We are bound to a certain amount of time, it seems, which none of us can truly predict. I have never understood suicide, but I understand the desire for control over something, anything, and how that can often translate into an attempt to control one's destiny, in as horrible a manner as it is. It can go even further, and the selfishness takes over, and people want to end others' lives as well as their own. This sickening and rabid behavior is sad and avoidable... but not if all we do is blame each other.

Whenever there is a mass shooting, or mass hysteria over something, or a blatant, purposeful desire to cause the end of life or "the world," people cry out for some answer. They turn to god. They turn to the government. They turn to Fox News... probably the absolute worst of those choices (Probably). As the Witch said in Into the Woods, "What matters is the blame, somebody to blame."

Today marks the end of the thirteen baktun of the Mayan calendar, the end of a massive cycle that people have been talking about for a very long time... since, as we all know, civilizations that fell at the hands of unforseen circumstances are REALLY good at predicting doomsday(s).

Already, the news is flashing reports of a shooting in Pennsylvania, people visiting Chichen Itza to soak up cosmic energy, people trying to reach a tiny French village so a UFO can take them away in time. It is really fascinating to me how badly people want things to end.

Doomsday planners and believers have been around for an extremely long time. I'm fairly certain I've said a bit on the subject in one way or another in my blogs. And I think that the phrase that puzzles me is symptomatic of the selfishness we all exhibit, regularly, in our lives. Jesus, look at our current Congress; how much more selfish a body can you find?! "I'm taking all my toys and going elsewhere!" "I need all the money I can get so I'm not as poor as you!" "Don't take my guns, you don't have the right to tell me when I can and can't shoot things and/or people who might not also have guns!" "Don't take away my rights to an abortion or birth control, your religion is stupid!" "Don't tell me I'm racist, I just don't think we're ready for a black president!" I'll freely admit some of those are exaggerations, or hyperbole, or just flat out nasty... but the rhetoric in them is symptomatic of what truly is wrong with the people we've come to trust with our lives and the continued functioning of our society. We just... can't... get along.

As a self-aware species, there is a certain logic to our selfishness. We're pretty much all born sociopathic; the universe is reeeeeally tiny to us, and mostly just embodied by our own personal space. Things feel good, or hurt us. We sleep, or we wake. We are the most important part, and everything is done for us. We are incapable of finding our own food, our own shelter and clothing; we rely on others, who will often supply it. It is, quite simply, the way of the animals, to propogate and protect our species.

THEN, other people occur. God (or the Montessori system) says "let there be interaction" and there is. Whether our parents read to us from a young age or we simply discover someone else who can make pseudo-similar sounds, we begin to communicate. We realize that not everyone wants to give you everything, that sometimes you have to share, that compromise is inevitable, and that in the end, everything goes away, to make room for something new. You don't stay in preschool forever. You don't have the same friends forever. Sometimes you don't have the same PARENTS forever.

The book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum is not compulsory reading, but it really should be. Although often saccharine in it's analysis of how people of a young age get along, it bears such powerful meaning on human life in general that it is truly astonishing to see how quickly we abandon those principles as we age.

One of the problems of our society is how rapidly it advances; our technology grew up before we did. We now know very little of what it is like to be a speck in the eye of the storm, to be unprotected from the unfairness of life, and to realize how much we need each other, just as we did when we were very little. We've come to believe that success is prosperity, the accumulation of things, the realization of rightness. We forget that some of the happiest places on earth are some of the poorest, the most rundown, what WE in comfortable bastions of "First World Problem Land" would think of as terrible and sad. They have hope, and love, and a sense of joy that transcends many problems. We say it is because "they do not know any better." Perhaps we are right, but it does not change this fact.

When we say "The End of the World," we mean us, not the world. We ARE the world, to us. Ourselves, our loved ones, our society, all the things that matter to us... not the things that matter to others. We cannot fathom the world existing beyond us - and, in some cases, don't want to allow it to. The world is something which has existed for an extremely long time (see my quip about fossils in an earlier post). It's gotten along fine without us before, and it will get along fine without us in the future. It will end, eventually, in the most literal sense of that word:  either as the sun expands or from some other unimagineable celestial event, this planet will shrivel up and blow away into cosmic dust. But THE WORLD is an idea, in the context of that phrase. We should learn that... and respect it.

But people are impatient. People don't want to wait that long for the end... because they can't. They are limited, mayfly-like in their navel-gazing pursuit of things. The rich die; the poor die; life is a gift that far too few people cherish. I myself have contemplated numerous ways to try and live forever, not because I'm greedy, but because I want to see what we become, and if we really do matter to the universe. I understand the desire of others for the end of all things because it is very human to do so, to be upset that we would be left behind, to be passed over for some big revelation or discovery. I am grateful to live in the time I do, when we have a greater understanding of the universe and all it's wonders than ever before. But, I will not be alive in a thousand years, when we'll know even more. That is saddening, but it is also true, and so it is... okay.

I wish we could all say that to ourselves. "It's okay." Yesterday, and today, and tomorrow... are okay. If we live in this moment, and appreciate what we have, we won't be so fixated on the end, what we don't or won't have. The end of the world is an intangible construct; I think the reason people have become so obsessed with the Hadron Collider is because the stakes are higher. The world is bigger, so it'll take a lot more for it to end. When John of Patmos wrote the Book of Revelations on a tiny island in exile, he did not know how big the world was. He gave the names of places he knew, like Meggido and Jerusalem, because he was aware of them. His universe was small. Our universe is terrifyingly big. It encompasses people who believe other things besides us; it contains stars that are no longer just heavenly bodies but masses of gas and light and intense power; it holds wonders, "treasures to satiate curiosities both subtle and gross." And thus, we want it all... or none at all.

...There are about twelve hours til the end of "Mayan Doomsday." I wonder what -and when - the next doomsday will be?

"Ya Big Memee."

I came across this picture today, and it suddenly felt like a good time to make a meme...

The Beginning of the End of the Beginning...

2011 is about to close. I am not where I thought I would be, but I'm not where I used to be... and that is definitely a step in the right direction.

An old boss of mine once told me that the Indians have a saying: At some point in your life you will receive seven years of bad luck, followed by seven years of good luck.

From the beginning of 2005 til now, my life has become something I couldn't possibly have conceived of in my youth... I have had people tell me throughout this past year how amazed they are at my resilience, or how well I look, or how much I've accomplished... and I want to tell them that they really, truly have no idea. They don't know.

They couldn't know, really. Even the ones who are so close to me. And that is why I don't scream it at them from the rooftops. That is why I don't give in to all the terrible things that have torn off and eaten little parts of my heart over all this time.

I have been into the most physical manifestation of Hell imaginable: my own mind. Throughout everything, I have managed to be optimistic... I have managed to overcome obstacles because in my heart I have tremendous faith in myself, my family, my friends, and my love of others. I have been hurt, but my experiences have made me realize what is really important:

I spend time with people who want to spend time with me.
I cherish people who earn that affection.
I exalt those who compliment me and our shared ideals.
I appreciate the zeal of passion, the strength of intelligence, and the charisma of confidence, for I find people who can hold conversations with me for hours on end and who can see the world in a marvelous way as I do despite it all absolutely fascinating and beautiful.
I live for the moments when the people I adore demonstrate the reasons for my feelings; they are testaments to everything I believe in.

Above all else, I admire and applaud people who want to change the world, sincerely. I remember wanting to do things for selfish reasons when I was younger... but the resolve that grew in me over the past seven years has taken on a life of its own:

I WILL change the world.
It is as simple as that.

It may not be with a "REAL" job, as opposed to "Artsy" or "Theoretical" jobs, but it WILL be with every fiber of my being, with the core of my essence, with the last bit of breath in my body I will harness whatever strength is inside me and inside those who will join in my Crusade, and we will change EVERYTHING.

For Good.
For Always.

If Naren was right, my seven years are almost up... and I have less than two months left til I miss the "Death at 27" curse that seems to strike creative people who make an impact while they're young... and if his conviction and faith sustained him through everything in his life, it sure as hell can do the same for mine.

This entire past year has been better than the last, and next year can only be better. I have met so many wonderful people; I have had some marvelous experiences; I have loved life as if it were a precious, unsustainable gift... because that is exactly what it is.

The people who have made all of those moments, especially this past week, so unforgettable and invigorating... I hope you know how awesome this ride has been, and how you have contributed to it.

Thank you all, with all my heart.

Let us make 2012 the greatest year of our lives.

With Strange Aeons, Even Death May Get A Life.

Whenever major events come up in my life, I tend to get distant, particularly from people I love and care for... there are certain days of the year which have special meaning for me, when I am difficult to find, or simply stay in all day, preferably with a book or perhaps just my memories. I have grown accustomed to being alone for long periods of time, either simply in a spiritual sense or in a physical way, too. Nevertheless, this can create problems for me when I become... shall we say, overstimulated:  I love being in large groups, and interacting with people, but coming down off it leaves me feeling agoraphobic and estranged, like Emily Dickinson on speed.

I have little to complain of:  my family is wonderful, I live in relative comfort, and those who count me as their friend truly are the best friends I could hope for. My life isn't where I would like it to be... but let's face it, who's is?

The simple fact is, there are horrendous moments of clarity in my interactions with people, where it suddenly dawns on me that, for all our conversations about quantum theory, the potential presence of god, the necessity of change, everything, that in, perhaps, sixty or seventy years, we will be dead, and none of it will matter.

I am not a hedonist or an atheist, but I see nothing wrong in living a life that advocates experiencing as much as possible WHILE it is possible and questioning blind dogma about ANY religious belief. I see nothing wrong in making decisions, good or bad, as long as they are made. And I see no point in clinging to mistakes, regrets, and lost loves in a vain attempt to change the past rather than learning from them to effect the future.

But...

Sometimes, I wonder, if I were given the opportunity to exist forever (as, most likely, pure energy, as I have postulated before in my play, Connections), whether or not I would take it. I think my situation and nature is uniquely suited for this... but would I truly want to see what we turn into? What becomes of us?

Strange aeons, indeed.

What Will Happen to Casey Anthony?

So, I normally try to stay out of things like this, because I think any time another "Crime of the Century" comes along, it distracts us from the real crimes of the century, which usually involve CEOs or the CIA or some other acronym doing something fairly nefarious and doing it for a very long time, unabashedly. We have a tendency in this country to fixate on anything and everything that will distract us from the tragedies of our own lives, as if the suffering and trauma of others will somehow make ours less painful by comparison or proxy. Sometimes this is good, such as when a person channels their pain and trouble into doing good for others, alleviating the pain of others, thus making their own burdens feel less staggering. Most people, however, go on witch hunts, insist that people are guilty or "wrong" because of the way they look or act, and operate without any facts at their disposal, just hearsay that they suck up like sponges from the media, judicial platforms, and even their friends and families. A prosecutor's job is to make you believe someone is guilty no matter what, just like a defender's job is to make you believe someone is innocent no matter what; never forget this. If you do, here are some broad examples of this sort of "guilty by association" reasoning, where the defender either didn't exist or had little to no power:

The Holocaust.
The Salem Witch Trials.
Eugenics.
The Crusades.
Slavery.
Proposition 8.
The Inquisition.
Rwanda.

There are millions of examples of this, some more direct than others, but the simple fact of the matter is that no matter how cool the technology is that we develop, no matter how fast we learn how to travel, no matter how much we understand about our universe... we are still, at base level, paranoid animals who are reasonably sure that we are good, and others are bad. This is flawed, but not entirely untrue, I'll admit; a better analysis would be that we are both good AND bad, all of us, and that judging people based on our opinions or what is masqueraded as fact should always be viewed in an extremely critical light.

Nevertheless, I cannot say that I know, one way or another, whether Casey Anthony murdered her daughter or not. Which was the point. As a prosecutor, when you go into trial, you had better have definitive evidence, visual, quantifiable proof, showing a race of people who predominantly survive (still) on instinct and sensation that THIS ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY IS WHAT HAPPENED.

Otherwise, as this country learns the hard way, again and again, reasonable doubt MUST be accounted for. Just because you believe something doesn't mean it is true. And yes, I'm talking to you, Nancy Grace. By the way, how are those lacrosse players doing these days?

If you, as a defendant, did something, and they can prove it, just admit it. Don't go to trial; you will lose. You will fall farther than you already have, and pay a terrible price for it. The hardest thing for someone to do who has made a mistake is to accept it, and start moving forward. Casey Anthony now only has to admit to one mistake:  She is a terrible liar. Like, seriously; beyond stupid. Reeeeally bad at it. Those lies brought so much upon her that she deserved anything the judge and jury threw at her for those charges. And I have no doubt she will continue to lie. She is a posterchild for the latest generation of attention whores and pathological liars, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Ellen Page win an Oscar for portraying her in the movie they'll undoubtedly be making soon:  Monster 2 - The Casey Anthony Trial.

That being said, here is what I, personally, think will happen to her:


She will try to have a normal life, but it will be impossible. She is a pariah in her own country now, thanks to the media exposure, and having spent so much time in jail these past three years she will be completely unprepared to deal with it. Not even getting married to change her name will avail her; if she isn't lynched by a vigilante mob, she will spend most of her time hiding from the world, and eventually start doing drugs (and, since it's Florida, let's face it, it'll either be meth or scrips).

Because the media CANNOT SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT HER, she will be given her own reality show... probably right after and before, respectively, MTV's newest shows "Sarah and Bristol Do America" and "My Super Sexy Underaged Bachelorette Party." This will satiate anyone literally frothing at the mouth for more news of Caseygate, as well as appealing to all the die-hard folks who protest her innocence as well. Eventually, she will be seen on this show actually doing drugs... and she will be arrested.

The judge and jury, using ABSOLUTE, VISUAL EVIDENCE of her drug use, will give her the maximum penalty, especially if she doesn't plead guilty, and she will probably go for fifteen to twenty years, higher if they get her on Possession with Intent to Sell. Much like O.J., if you are ever in court but come out somewhat clean, don't do anything that could get you back into it, because if the first time around the prosecution does not get their pound of flesh, they will make it their life's mission to get you again and disembowel you the next time.

As we all know from historical examples, the only way to make sure someone famous goes to jail is to get them for tax evasion or drug use. Since this country seems to be headed towards turning into an anarchocapitalistic beaurocracy, without taxation or true representation, I'm betting on the drugs.

So that's what I think will happen. Come on America, you all know it doesn't matter if she was found innocent or guilty this time; what matters is how long it takes for her to screw up next time!

...right?

Oh Joy. Oh Rapture.

Okay, since today is one of the latest in a series of doomsday deadlines (and, as yet, nothing has happened) I thought it would be fun to write about it.

First of all, before I even get to playing Devil's Advocate and actually discuss the scientific analysis of the Rapture, I will explain the context of the idea of the Rapture itself.

From very early on in the Abrahamic faith called Judaism, there are stories of people taken up into the heavens, for whatever reason. Perhaps the best known examples are not found in many books because they were deemed apocryphal, yet the ravenous need to learn everything possible about the nature of god, the angels, and heaven has made this a small technicality. The Book of Enoch, the first of all the Old Testament texts which is written in the first person, describes an event which is mentioned oh-so briefly in Genesis:

"And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." - Gen 5:24

This is all you get in the mainstream religious stuff, but in the Book of Enoch you get a startling story of what today we would call an alien abduction, where Enoch is whisked up into a vessel in the sky where God and all the angels pilot it around. Each of them is named, and they have specific tasks they perform aboard this ship, and in the end Enoch is returned, but even though it seems like a very short time has passed for him (a year or two at most) down on Earth the flood has occurred and many decades have passed.

I should like to point out that this story, like all the stories in both the Old and New Testaments, is not fresh; an earlier story that is almost identical to that one can be found in the epic of Gilgamesh, written centuries earlier, and on a wall, which is a little harder to cover up and get rid of than simple papyrus.

Anyway, moving forward in time, you get Christ, and whatever else you believe about him, it is pretty obvious that no one can agree on what the hell he was actually talking about. While religion has the dubious distinction of being one of the only reasons people with money actually spend it on anything, it is also the reason why so few people can get along; knowing you're absolutely, positively right about something means that any seed of doubt must be eradicated, by any means necessary, which is why atheists are just as bad about all this as religious people... the only difference is, atheists live in a day and age where it's no longer acceptable to commit genocide just because you don't agree with someone, although I'm sure if they could have Crusades, they would.

Now, I don't really want to explain the Rapture, since I think it is either completely metaphorical or a colossal load of bullshit, so here is a wikipedia entry about it (the perfect forum for discussing this topic, I believe):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture

As you can see from this extensive entry, that's all that most people have to say about it; their opinions range from truly believing they will float up into the sky to high-five Jesus down to simply passing away quietly in their sleep. Whatever the case, the idea is that some massive purge will happen, leaving many behind to suffer. To me, this sounds almost exactly like what happens after a nuclear attack or meltdown, so I choose to look at it in a metaphorical sense. Anything that happens after the actual "event" is purely speculative.

Okay, so now we come to the mathematics used by this former civil engineer to arrive at both his original proclamation (1994) and his latest one (2011). Since we don't have Lewis Black to take a fossil out of his pocket and say "fossil," we'll have to have a little discussion about that, too:

There are these things called fossils. They take a very long time to form. They are usually the bones, carapaces, or debris left over from lifeforms who lived a long, long time ago, because when protected in the ground from the harmful forces that swirl over the surface of our planet at any given time, they won't decompose. Fossils range from being hundreds of thousands to millions of years old, and they tell us an awful lot about whatever God or the aliens or the flying spaghetti monster was doing before we showed up. Now, other cultures have stories which predate what Mr. Camping calls the beginning of the world; some of my favorites come from the areas which are now India and Pakistan, stories of great, big, colorful deities who wage war with each other and use humans as pawns.

...Krishna, by the way, was a carpenter, born on December 25th.

Now, as we look at the history of our time on this planet, there is one particular thing we must take into account:  It is REALLY scary. Like, poop your pants scary. SO SCARY that for a very long time we didn't even know what the hell that big glowy thing was in the sky, and when it went away for a while each day we went apeshit, killing newborns and all sorts of other stuff. So, when there is so little to be certain of, you really need comfort, something that lets you know there's a reason you exist. Religion is great at this, because it's the same as just saying no: so simple, it's foolproof. Nancy Reagan had it right:

"But what if I start to think that maybe Gabriel really did show up six hundred years after Christ and try to help out the descendants of a handmaiden?"
"JUST SAY NO."

"But what if it seems strange that Jesus shares almost exactly the same story as Horus, an Egyptian god who was hanging around 4,000 years earlier?"
"JUST SAY NO."

"But what if it turns out that this was all just some huge fluke, or worse, an experiment by extraterrestrial beings who now feel kind of ashamed of all the tinkering they did with our genetic make-up and have since left us relatively in peace to quietly destroy ourselves, thus freeing them from any responsibility to the consequences of the project?"
"WHAT PART OF JUST SAY NO DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! BURN THAT HERETIC!!!"

Now, clearly you can see I'm somewhat biased here. I do try to be open-minded, but blind devotion to ANYTHING is a bad idea, be it politics, religion, or a country club. If we were meant to be a herd, we would be; we would all believe the same thing, and original thought would hold no quarter in the development of our species. But it does, so I must, in good faith, dispute the irrevocable and irrefutable nature of religion as hypothesized by so many over such a long time. Besides, I don't think I would enjoy sitting in heaven if I had to listen to Kirk Cameron babble on all day about tricking your own intelligence, or whatever.

So... back to the Rapture. While many people subscribe to this idiotic notion, the REALLY crazy ones pick specific days. Setting yourself up for failure is not something pretty to watch; I take no delight in seeing peoples' hopes and dreams dashed. I feel terribly sorry for the people who waste away all their life savings, drown their children, or feel compelled to suck others into their mania simply to feel right about things. OF COURSE the world is in bad shape:  it was in bad shape when Revelations was written, too. All doomsday prophecies are reflective of the times they were written in; they're cryptic not because there's a hidden message in them for a specific date or time period, but usually because they were poking fun at the current establishment in a way that would ultimately lead to being nailed to two sticks of wood, or worse. The fact is that EVERY SINGLE GENERATION has had a moment where they assumed the end of the world was nigh... and the smaller your world, the more likely it is. We aren't seeing a tremendous ramping up of doomsday believers, we're seeing an increasingly more connected world, where you can listen to the ramblings of a man two continents away, or see pictures of earthquake devastation thousands of miles away, or see the earth from space any time you want on the NASA channel and watch massive hurricanes twirl across its surface. The possibilities are endless, and so, while I cannot subscribe to the myth that God and/or Jesus and/or Muhammad will come back to take away all the "good" people, I must endorse the very real possibility that all life on this planet could, indeed, be obliterated. It may be by our own hand, but it is much more likely it will be by something far beyond our control, like an asteroid or the Yellowstone supervolcano. It is this uncertainty, this terrible inability to fight back against forces greater than ourselves, that makes us so pathetically desperate for some rhyme and reason in the universe.

Alright... now I'm going to blow your minds.

First of all, here is my favorite part of this recent hoop-la: instead of rational people coming out saying "The world is not going to end at 6p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2011," OTHER religious folks who would not otherwise seem fanatical under normal circumstances simply repeat the same clunky piece of verse over and over again:

"But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." Matthew 24:36

Great! So, instead of just saying this isn't very likely, they're giving us ANOTHER GODDAMNED ABSOLUTE:  You can't know, so just be vigilant. This is the principle the war on terror relied on:  it is never, ever, ever threat level green. Big brother is always watching you. Don't ever step out of line, for in the next instant you shall be smited.

...Smitten? Smitted? Smat?

...Screw it, moving on; now, I am going to analyze this statement for what it should mean, using quantum theory. I told you:  mind blown.

If God alone knows when the end will be, it is because he is the end (and, supposedly, the beginning). However, the law of conservation of energy states that for everything destroyed, something new takes its place. Therefore, if God is both the beginning and the end, he is happening simultaneously, at every microsecond of every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year of every century. If we let God equal the Big Bang, then God occurred a long, long time ago; however, it is increasingly more apparent due to quantifiable data that the universe is expanding, and will eventually stop expanding and reverse itself; ergo, God contradicts himself. Eventually, the universe will collapse down to a point similar to its original state... but the law still stands, so that energy goes somewhere:  into a NEW Big Bang. God is created again; the universe is created again; most cultures have some form of belief that explains the world we live in now is not the first version, but a later one. This can be extrapolated as a metaphor for the universe at large.

(By the way, anyone balking at this should really take a good long look at their own beliefs, and see if they are any less ridiculous. After all, this is only a theory, not gospel.)

SO, since the universe must begin and end, then it could happen at any time; since it ever happened, it always happened. Look closely at that statement: "No one knows..." There is, apparently, no way to be sure when it will all end. Therefore, we have to accept this as meaning that we could go at any time, any where.

Therefore, the universe just ended. And again. And again. And again.

It is infinitely possible that at every second, the universe is ending, so by concentrating on it, we do not simply verify it but validate it:  the world MUST end, or else we are wrong. If the world does not end, it means that chaos holds sway, and so there are many people who cannot comprehend a world like that.

Instead of seeing it as a day to come, we should see it as an instantaneous crisis: a never-ending perpetual destruction that looms over us and has loomed over us long before we even evolved.

The message is this:  Instead of worrying about when the last day will be, treat every day as your last. Do the best you can, whatever you can, for yourself and the ones dear to you, and cherish every second like it is your final one. Don't worry who will go where, but where we will all go, together, from moment to moment, and concentrate on the here and now, rather than the future or the past.

Now that is a Rapture I can get behind. I hope others can see it that way, too.

Intermedio...

I think it may be a good sign that I'm not writing as much in my blog these days... it means I'm too busy with everything else going on in my life to really dedicate the time necessary to keep it poppin' fresh.

However, there will be more posts soon, I'm sure. Stay tuned!