It's the End of the World As We Know It....again.

Wow. I just read an article in which Ashton Kutcher was interviewed about his rigorous fitness training regime. He actually admitted that he was training for the End of Days, so he could protect his family when Armageddon comes in 2012. No, he was not joking. And he has, what - something like a million followers on Twitter?

Oh, brother. Here we go again…

The End of Days has been predicted since the beginning of recorded history, possibly from the beginning of time. I’m sure there were cavemen that predicted it in hieroglyphs on a cave somewhere every time a shooting star went across the sky.

If you are to believe the Bible in it’s literal sense, when Jesus spoke to his followers about the end of Days, he said, "this generation will not pass away till all these things take place" (Matthew 24:34). And yet, that generation did pass away, and those things did not take place. So Christians got loose with the translation, believing it could still happen at any time.

Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, said it would happen in 1890. The Shakers believed it would happen in 1792. Not so, said the Methodists – it will be 1794! Jehovah’s Witnesses said it would happen in 1914…on and on and on. And every natural disaster, earthquake, plague, war, was an indicator that the end was near. Don’t even get me started on how many times Pat Robertson has predicted it.

In my lifetime, I can remember hearing about it since I was a very little girl, practicing drop drills, huddled under our desks for when the A-bomb would eventually be dropped on us. And hey, how about the Cold War in the 80s….the huge Armageddon that was going to occur between Russia and the USA? It was all right there, predicted in the Bible…the “beasts” were the Eagle (USA) and the Bear (Russia). In fact, here’s an article written for the Atlantic in 1982- when everyone was preparing for the Armageddon of (cue scary music)…1984! I mean, even David Bowie sang about that one. http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/82jun/martin.htm

How about that Haley’s comet scare that led all those nutty people to commit suicide? Oh and let’s not forget Y2K- that was going to wipe out computers all over the world, leading to panic and mayhem in the streets, ending the world as we knew it. Remember stocking up on fresh water and canned goods, just in case?

So now it’s coming up on 2012 and our doom is just around the corner….

Puh-leeze.

My prediction for 2012? Water distributors are going to make a fortune, and Ashton Kutcher is going to be really buff. Then 2013 is going to come around and we’re all going to start obsessing on some other possible date upon which the disaster could happen.

Here’s the way I see it. We’re all going to die one day and that scares the hell out of us. Because it’s not going to happen to all of us on the same day in some fantastic display of fireworks and battle of good and evil like a Hollywood movie. It will most likely happen quietly, when we’re old and frail and our body gives out. But we don’t like the thought of slipping away quietly into the night. We don’t want to believe that we’re really so small and powerless. Our egos need to feel that we are so fantastic it would take Armageddon to wipe us out- and then not even Armageddon, because many of us, (like Sarah Palin for instance) believe we are “chosen” and will ascend above the mayhem. And suddenly we feel more secure, more in control, superior even, because we know the end of the story.

Could that be it?

Here’s my advice: Live.

There is never any guarantee of security, or life, or safety. So just live.

We are all “chosen”. God made every one of us, and in doing so, God “chose” us to live.

So LIVE!

Live well. Love others. Be a good person. Live in possibility, not fear. Make the most of every day, knowing that we have no control over the Universe. Leave that part to God.

And get comfortable with living in the mystery, because as Shakespeare said, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

And maybe stop following Ashton Kutcher on Twitter. Just sayin’.