You don't have to look far to see the demise of our civilization. Daily, the news is filled with stories of violent crimes, economic woes and corruption. Sometimes these stories are in our own back yard. Just yesterday a man stormed into the Carson City IHOP and shot up the place, taking four lives before taking his own. That was a short five minute drive from where I work. Maybe it was this occurance or the upcoming 10 year reunion of 9/11 that got me thinking - could this really be the beginning of the end?
I'm not naive, I realize the world is a crazy and scary place sometimes and that bad things happen to good people everyday but with all the puzzle pieces scattered on the table a distorted image of our society starts to take shape. Maybe all the 2012 prophecies are right, the end is near. If it is, we can only blame ourselves.
I don't mean to be all doom and gloom but it is a subject that I personally can not ignore at the present. I tend to deal with my own failures and set backs with humor and satire but I'm having trouble being witty when I think about the world and where we are or where we are going.
Several books and shows on TV talk about the prophecies and that the end is near. Aliens are going to come tell us we screwed up... blah blah blah, something along those line. I don't necessarily believe all of that but I do feel like we've been setting the stage for an apocalypse for thousands of years and the characters are all in place. The world is always at war, our economy takes one dive after another and we continue to rape our planet of every resource it can give.
So what do we do?
Personally, I dwell. But that doesn't solve anything and I don't recommend it. Since we can't fix years of turmoil and societal turbulence I think we have to start small. I feel on an individual basis it is my job to find the beauty in every day. Be thankful, hug longer, laugh often and smile at a stranger. Just be here, be a witness to life.
Maybe events, like the shooting in Carson, however senseless and violent serve some purpose. Perhaps we are meant to look at our own lives and realize it is wonderful. If we can put aside our daily woes long enough to appreciate what we have and set our own lives to a purpose, any good purpose, then maybe it isn't all lost.
My thoughts go out to the victims and families of the Carson shooting, the survivors and families of those lost during 9/11 and to all those touched by hate and crime.
