Random Thoughts
Before the End of the World
Well, all my
thoughts are a little random most of the time, right? So this is not so unusual. But
with all this End of the World as we know it hoopla going on, I guess my
thoughts are pretty scrambled right now. For one thing, it doesn’t feel like
the end of the world. Today was a gorgeous day here in Southeast Texas. Didn’t
look like the end of anything. No earthquakes, meteors, asteroids, tsunamis,
polar shifts, or rogue planets and hey look, I can see the center of the galaxy
from here and…nothing. Well some have said that we might go out with a whimper
and not with a bang. I have friends who are actually looking forward to Friday
as being the end for various reasons. Most are because they think this is what
the Bible prophesied, and they are ready “to go home”. I don’t know what their hurry is. We will all
get there soon enough. Why rush it? Anyway, I have already gone on record
saying why I don’t think that particular prophecy will be fulfilled this
Friday. Anyway, I wonder if now would be a good time to buy a house? My son
just did, and my daughter is contemplating doing the same. Now there’s optimism
for you. Anyway, it does seem that the whole world has their panties in a bunch
over this thing…even more so than they did when the calendars rolled around
from 1999 to 2000. I slept through that one like a baby - not worried at all. And
I will do the same this Thursday night. One of my favorite lines from a movie
was spoken by one of the Viking warriors in the movie “Thirteen Warriors”. When
their Arab friend was afraid before a battle against tremendous odds, one of
the warriors asked him what he was afraid of. His reply was, “Death.” The
Viking laughed and said fear of death was a waste of time. He told him that he
could dig a hole in the ground and pull the Earth over him to hide, but if it
was his time to go, Death would find him still. So he might as well fight and
be unafraid. Sounds like good advice to me. I will not seek out death, but
neither will I hide from it or spend one minute worrying about it. I am deeply
saddened by the headlines lately. But I’m not too surprised by them. I read the works of Reverend Thomas Robert
Malthus a long time ago and knew that he was right. He put forth his ideas in
the late 1700’s and early 1800’s when most people believed that society would
evolve and continue to grow and perfect itself to the point of someday reaching
a utopia. It was what most men believed, and a great deal of the impetus for
men to leave Europe and come to the so-called New World was to set up just such
a utopia. Today’s headlines are just more proof that Malthus was right and the
utopians were wrong. Malthus pointed out that when man’s numbers became greater
than his resources disease and famine would shrink his numbers back down again
to a more manageable amount. If that didn’t happen fast enough, we would rend
and tear at each other achieving the same result. There is a lot of rending and
tearing going on in the world today. And you don’t have to be a prophet to see
that it will only get worse. So if in the middle of all of this, you can still
call yourself an optimist you are blessed among men. Or just plain bonkers! I’m
not so sure yet which it is. But I will remain ever hopeful that we will
somehow find our way. In the meantime, I’m not going to take life too seriously.
After all, no one gets out of it alive anyway in the long run.
No comments:
Post a Comment