As I write this, the date is December 21, 2012. The apocalypse has come and gone – again. I look around me and see that everything is pretty much the same as it was yesterday. I can only assume that someone messed up – again.
Today was supposed to be the day that would bring either: (a) the end of civilization, (b) the physical end of the world or (c) peace, love and understanding. None of those things has occurred. This gives me the time to think about things and wonder about all those who have been caught up in the speculation/preparation for the End of Days.
There have always been people who delighted in telling us when and how the world was going to end. They gleefully told us that they would be saved and justified while the rest of us would be doomed to (a) eternal torture, (b) instant annihilation or (c) watch reality TV forever without commercial interruption. Given the choice, I would go with ‘b.’
I’m not sure why so many people are obsessed with determining the exact day and time that the trump of doom will sound. I guess it’s their way of feeling in control of things when they really aren’t. They want so much to be right and to be the ones who are totally in with God’s plan for the world that they bludgeon the rest of us with their statistics, their interpretations of mystical writings and a Mayan calendar. It must be really embarrassing when the day comes and goes and we’re all still here.
Remember Harold Camping? Back in 2011, he and his Family Radio organization told us that the end would come in May of that year. When it didn’t, Harold told us that the May date was a “spiritual apocalypse” and that the actual physical end of the world would come in October 2011. It didn’t. What can you expect from a radio preacher whose middle name is Egbert?
Still, to his credit, Harold Camping has said that he and his organization were wrong – not only in the dates that they set but in setting a date at all. Camping admits to presuming to know the mind of God. He calls it “sin” and apologizes for it. He has no interest in considering another apocalyptic date and only seeks to be more understanding of the sacred writings. Well done, Egbert.
In France, the tiny village of Bugarach is flooded with people. Someone decided that there is a mystical mountain nearby that is regularly visited by UFOs. Today there was to be a vortex to another dimension, provided by our friends from off-world. Police and reporters came to keep order and report on the many believers that wanted to climb the mountain and enter the vast underground area that is, apparently, a cosmic parking lot. “The circus has come to town,” one resident commented. Another resident, a transplant from Glastonbury, spoke of her friend Ian who had left town to buy clean underwear for the occasion (I’m not making this up!). Sadly, upon his return the gendarmes refused to let Ian back into the village. Now he has clean shorts and nowhere to wear them.
The rest of us are left to ponder the fact that the world is still here and to decide what we’re going to do about that. We can, of course, do the same thing that we did yesterday. When you’ve been threatened by the end of the world so many times, there seems to be no reason to panic or make any changes. We’ll just keep on keeping on.
Another option is to look at the meaning of ‘apocalypse.’ The word actually means ‘revelation,’ not the end of the world. I’m wondering if anyone came to any revelation today. Maybe someone realized that there are better things to do than to win a political battle or make another million dollars or look out only for himself. Maybe someone realized that when the world really does end, he or she would want to be found doing something good and worthwhile instead of something self-centered and petty.
Somewhere a child is dying of starvation. Somewhere someone is living on the street, cold and sick. Somewhere else a marriage is falling apart, a parent waits for a child that has forgotten them, and a young person is getting his first handgun.
Perhaps someone somewhere will receive a revelation telling them that it’s possible to change one of these things. Even one change would leave the world better than it started this morning. Maybe it will be revealed that, since the world didn’t end, we can actually do something. Today. There’s no time to waste.
After all, the world might end tomorrow.
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