End of the World As We Know It

I hate to be the one the break the news to you, but if you haven’t heard yet the world is ending on 12/21/12. If you don’t believe me, Google end of world and see what comes up. Apparently, the Mayans, Hopi Indians and Nostradamus knew what our fate would be long before we had a chance to mess things up pretty good on our own. Other apocalyptic dates have come and gone, but this one is the biggie. And it’s less than a year away.

As a child, I worried about the end of the world so much I had two recurring dreams that haunted me throughout my adolescence. 

In one, people are pouring out of their homes and being herded to the end of my street to find out if they are going to Heaven or Hell, accessible by an up and down escalator. When I saw my paperwork was sending me in the wrong direction, I swapped it with someone formerly destined for Heaven. Instead of feeling relief on my ride to the sky, I experienced overwhelming guilt and sadness about my actions, which would become my personal hell for eternity.   

In the other, people are running into the streets, randomly disappearing into thin air. I locked myself in a room with a stranger, thinking we were safe from whatever was happening, just as he disappeared with a poof. I’ve since learned this sounds like an event called The Rapture, where good people are called to Heaven at the end of the world, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. As I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what a rapture was at age ten, I’m hoping this was not an omen of things to come, as in my dream I was not one of the lucky disappearing ones.

There are different approaches to take when anticipating the end of the world. One is to throw caution to the wind, eat anything you want, stop exercising, and ring up the charge cards because no one is going to worry about collecting on your debt when the world is overrun with zombies.

Another approach is to believe salvation truly is possible, and we reap what we sow. While we’d all like to think that when and if Judgment Day comes we’d be on the fast track to Heaven, we still have about 10 months to make things right just in case.

For starters, drop all grudges. The weight of that anger drags you down more than the person you begrudge, so let it go and you’ll be that much lighter, making it easier to catch the updraft to up above. 

It might also help to stop chasing down the latest and greatest gadgets, because I’m pretty sure coveting anything – including the newest phone- is like tying a rock to your soul, and the goal this year is to travel light.

And it’s never too late to build your heavenly resume by giving back to others, because the more selfless we are, the lighter our egos become, allowing us to drift upwards like a balloon cut free from its weight.

They say if we can repeat a behavior for 21 days, it will become habit. So let’s make a habit of smiling. You remember smiling, right? It’s when you lift up the corners of your mouth and crunch your crow’s feet. Studies show that even a fake smile makes you and others feel better. So why not give it a try? It’s cheaper and easier than stockpiling cases of water, batteries and duct tape, and perhaps in your time of need, someone you smiled at will remember you, and invite you to share their supplies with them.

As I think of it, preparing for the end of the world is actually pretty simple. Live as if you only have until 12/21/12 to save your soul. Then wake up on 12/22/12, and repeat. Perhaps if we all did this, we could turn this into a world worth saving.