THE END OF THE BEGINNING
By Team Editor Conner Lopez

With all this discussion about the end of days lately, it got me thinking.

Harold Camping predicted the beginning of the end would happen May 21 2011.

Well.

It didn't.

Some may dismiss Camping as a nutjob (I know I do) whos kind have been predicting similar The End Is Nigh events since the beginning of time.

 A few people actually believed him. Others pay no mind.

While Camping predicted massive earthquakes

I am more in the darkly brilliant T.S. Elliot camp (...This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.)

I believe this because... its whimpering already. The problem is most people can't hear it.

People generally fall into three groups.

1. Those that disbelieve the end is imminent.

2. Those that welcome it. 

3. Those that stockpile cans of tuna in their cupboard next to the olive oil and non stick spray.

The non believers have it easy. They dont have to do or change anything. They just keep blissfully living their lives like they always have with nary a care in the world. Then again, dinosaurs once roamed the earth with similar thoughts.

The ones that welcome Armageddon, we will just call them the fanatics, also have it easy. They, like Camping, believe that only good can come of the Apocalypse. Duh.

The group I feel most sorry for, is the people that see the end coming and desperately try to prepare themselves for it, mostly using strategies heavily reliant on tuna. Oh right, that's me.

The most ponderous thing about the fanatics is that they all seem to think they know what the end of the world will look like. By definition, the end of the the world can only happen once right? So really, there can't be any witnesses, or anyone that's ever seen it before.

I propose the whimpering has already begun. Not with epic earthquakes or violent volcanoes. Not with dramatic skies or stark landscape, but by death of a thousand, (or maybe a few trillions) cuts.

Be assured, scientifically, inevitably, the world as we know it will end. Whether by the expansion of the sun or some unforeseen manmade calamity, it WILL happen.

While this may seem the musings of a man that stews in doom and gloom, it is not. There is a lesson to be learned from the doomsdayers.

Say it now.

Scratch that.

DO it now.

Why do we always have to wait until the end is in site before we are galvanized into action? If the end is in ten thousand years or the end is next week, its all the same.

Hear the whimper of time and heed its call.

Show life the respect it deserves.

There is no need to dramatically lifestyle changes or altering who you are in the expectation of doom. Its really much simpler than that.

For me, its about not wasting time with anger or malice towards others. Its about love and protection for those most close to me.

Kurt Vonnegut says it better and simpler than anyone else in a protagonists soliloquy to a bunch (or is it a gaggle?) of babies.

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."

I'll make it ever simpler than that.

Be kind.

and maybe we can soothe the whimper for a just little longer.