Shanti-Towners, I just want to be the first to tell you...the world has not ended.
I repeat, the world has not ended.
Phew! Paul's out of town until tonight and spending the end of the world without him was really going to be sucky. Hopefully when the next end-times arrive (oh, you know people are already out there ramping up for 12/21/12)...we can be happily ensconced together in our living room somewhere.
I don't even know where to begin with all of this doomsday craziness. There are people who have literally left their jobs, spent all their money and moved out to the middle of nowhere to prepare themselves for the rapture. (Is "The Rapture" supposed to be capitalized? Or just "Rapture", like "the Rapture"...should I treat it like the name of a band or a title of a movie?) People left children and spouses and entire lives in expectation of today's devastation. I was listening to NPR this morning and they were talking about some male rapture-ites whose wives, ahem, asked them to leave their homes and children in the last few weeks. ( I can't imagine why.) It's heartbreaking.
And maybe even more heartbreaking than all the folks who have just exploded their lives unnecessarily, is that the belief in some kind of Armageddon (again, capitalize? Not capitalize?) is still so pernicious. As far as I can figure it if there is a "Judgment Day" it means that:
1. Jesus (the ol' Prince of Peace) is, first of all, being weirdly manipulative about his return. "I'm coming baaaaaaack, but I'm not going to tell you when. Oooh, scary, huh? Scaaaaaaaary. So you just better be prepared for me to return...All. The. Time."
2. When this return happens (the return of God...who is, am I wrong about this...he's love isn't he? Isn't that what it says in the Bible? God is love?) that when he returns he is going to first suck all the "saved" up into the atmosphere (only 200 million folks in all, according to "prophets" like Harold Camping...that's just 3% of the population) and then basically torture and set fire to EVERYONE else. Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that most of those 3% are probably, I don't know...white people?
3. This is a-okay with them and Jesus is still a dude they'd want to hang out with.
I mean, my god...no wonder we can't figure out how to stop killing each other. THIS is the foundation of western spiritual belief: Be good (we can't tell you quite exactly what that means), God's coming back (eventually...someday...we're not telling when), and if you're not ready, you're going to die a terrible fiery death. Most of you will. And by most of you, we mean 97% of you.
Now, look, I know this is sticky stuff...all of these questions about what is or isn't going to happen, post-life, but all this End of Days talk has got me thinking. And this is not new, but let's say, for argument's sake, that what Jesus was preaching about was not a literal flying up into the sky to be with God, but that instead he was talking about...the possibility of heaven on earth. In our lives. The possibility of the end of suffering. The possibility that, if we can focus ourselves on love and brotherhood instead of all this other schtuff, that we could actually experience lasting (internal) peace. The peace that passes all understanding. Inside the ol' noggin.
And if that's the case, then couldn't the return of Jesus...this thing we're all supposed to be looking for...couldn't it simply mean the return of peace to our minds and hearts? Couldn't it mean the return of messengers of peace, similar to Jesus (people like MLK, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, the Dalai Lama...just to name a few)? And if that's true, then doesn't it mean, that yes indeed the rapture has started? As more and more people begin to understand how to loosen themselves from the binds of their constricted hearts and minds and are brought straight to the feet of God? And couldn't, I don't know, couldn't the fire and brimstone that stands in the place of that really just be about the kind of suffering, the hell, that our suffering minds put us through on a daily basis?
If THAT'S the case, then ladies and gents, yes, let's all get prepared. Because when THAT rapture comes...I want to be a part of it.
