Apocalypse, an extremely difficult word to spell

We've all seen those films. Where the solidity of the earth fails, earthquakes open up great chasms in the ground, entire continents shift and protest. The sea rises up and smashes the statue of liberty, the fire rains down from the clouds, and hail the size of cars smashes buildings. Fires are everywhere, electricity fails and phones are useless. Cities fall into the sea and planetary poles shift. Suddenly, icy cold is descending on the people and no one can escape.

Apocalypse. A great force of nature which would render our planet lifeless and barren. Why do I write about these things? Well, as I write it is currently past midnight on December 21, 2012, a date widely believed to signal the end of the world.

These prophecies supposedly originated from the ancient Mayans, who created an elaborate calendar system which, of course, was not indefinite. The Mayans wrote that the end of the calendar signaled the beginning of a "new age". This statement is clearly ambiguous, but nevertheless, for centuries it has been widely believed that the world would cease to exist past 2012. When I say widely believed, I am not saying that the majority of people believe it, but only that as far as apocalypse prophesies go, the 2012 prophesy seems to be the most significant doomsday prophesy.

I do not claim to be an expert in Mayan culture, nor have I extensively studied the subject, however, I am one of the people who do not believe 12/21/12 signals the end of the world. Perhaps I am just one of the great gullible masses, and a massive meteor really is plummeting toward earth to wipe out humanity. After all, in the movies, the people who see the truth are few and they are ridiculed. The majority of people go about with their lives until the very last second when the world is crashing down and they realize that they were wrong.

In reality, and excuse me for being callous, but I honestly don't care. What am I doing tonight? I'm watching just about every apocalypse movie that was ever made, just for the fun of it. My viewpoint on life tends to be a very liberating one. I figure that if I'm going to die, whether it be old age, freak accident, murder, or act of nature, I'll just deal with that when I get there. Why worry about every possible crisis? There are so many different things that can go wrong, it's amazing! My legacy is that I'll deal with every crisis once I can clearly see it, and I'll do my best to advert catastrophe when I can, but I'm honestly not going to loose any sleep over it.

Look at it this way. If I'm going to live in a house, there are some important things that I can do to keep myself safe. I'm going to put fire detectors in every room and keep them well-serviced. I'm going to map escape routs and make sure I know how to get out of my bedroom window. I'm going to put a security system in the house, not cut corners, and a good, healthy pit bull never hurts.

I'm going to wear my seat belt when I drive, and never drive intoxicated. The point is, I'm going to do all the routine things which can keep me and the people I love safe, but when it comes to everything else, I'm just not going to worry about it.
If a random bolt of lightning strikes a wire which runs into my house, in through the walls, into my room, through my socket, into my laptop's cord, and electrocutes me through my ear-buds  there is absolutely nothing I can do about that. So why worry about it?



When it comes to things which I have no control over, I would say the most obvious of these is nature. We see every day what happens when nature grows restless. Tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis; these are all natural disasters which strike suddenly and without prejudice. If you ever wanted a power which recognizes equality, it would be nature.

These disasters devastate poor and rich alike, killing whoever can not scramble to safety. Another factor which makes these killers effective is that every one of them is a little different. There is an air of unpredictability which makes escape risky and flawed. Overall, if there is anything which I cannot plan for, in any way shape or form , it is a natural disaster. And the apocalypse, if it ever does occur, would be the mother of all natural disasters. For all we know, the entire planet would disintegrate. Where do you think meteors come from? They are pieces of something.
My point is that an apocalypse event is something which, by my nature, I simply do not feel the need to worry about. If it happens, it will happen, and I will deal with it them.

Life is such a fragile and beautiful blessing. The more I learn about science, the more intricate and interconnected it becomes. In fear of sounding like a granola hippie, I'm going to go ahead and say...........we should celebrate life. I don't mean that we should all go outside in the rain and soak in the positive energy or some nonsense like that. (Although if that is your method of celebrating life, there is nothing wrong with it I'm sure) I'm just saying that for right now, how about we all just take a minute or two to soak in the world. Breath the air and love that it is around, feel the ground and love that it is strong, absorb your controlled environment and love that you're not outside (which in my case would be bitterly cold, extremely windy, and unpleasantly damp.) Love where you are, and leave the world to go forward, wherever it is destined or fated or just decides to go.

Human 100-300 pounds

Earth 5, 973,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms (estimated number calculated by this source)
(1 kilogram= 2.2 pounds)

Conclusion? Sit back and enjoy the ride, nature wins every time.