The End

So, apparently there’s a little rumor going around that Saturday, May 21, 2011 is the day of Rapture- the end of the world.

People have been proclaiming the end of the world has been/ will be coming for as long as they have been able to paint the ominous black letters on sandwich boards and stand on a street corner.  In more typical circumstances, these sign holders are old and tired and dirty. We roll our eyes and giggle or maybe take a moment to pause and reflect on the sad state of their lives.

With the most recent hullabaloo about the end of the world, fuzzy math and very specific interpretations of the Bible have prompted a number of people to quit their jobs and calculate their life savings to last them no further than May 21, 2011. They have worked to bring themselves to terms with the end and fervently tried to warn others of the fateful day that is to come.

This is when the nervous giggling starts, because while the rational of us know that we will still all wake up Sunday morning to our newspapers and our coffee and maybe some laundry, there is that LITTLE part of us that knows we really don’t know for sure, nor can we ever.

Saturday, May 21, 2011 will be the end of the world. It will be the end of the world for the tree that gets bulldozed in a forest. It will be the end of the world for a fish that can’t escape the black goo that gets spilled into water. It will be the end of the world for a family who can’t find work and now has their home entering into a state of foreclosure. It will be the end of the world for an illegal immigrant who gets discovered and deported. It will be the end of the world for a young child whose education is delayed because of budget cuts and for another child who gets bullied, yet again, because there are children who are as intolerant of difference as their parents are. It will be the end of the world for an elder who is forced to choose food over necessary medication.  It will be the end of the world for an innocent, in a small village, who gets caught up in fighting between two political powers who think they are both right.

It will be the end of the world for those out there that have just run out of the resources to fight and to survive- the ones who have no more options and the ones who have been beaten down to the point where they simply can’t stand again. This is happening in our world every day. Only the strong survive? What happened to honor? What happened to the perseverance and hope for a better tomorrow? What happened to the basic security of knowing that those of us with a good work ethic and a conscience can have a happy ending?

Maybe Saturday, May 21, 2011, will be the end of the world- as we know it (to quote REM.) Maybe a new world will begin- a world where we are respectful of the resources the Earth has provided, a world where we can once again work hard and achieve the “American Dream,” a world where we are able to properly invest in the future for our children and adequately honor those who have been here before we were. Maybe, just maybe, it will be filled with compromise and a world without wars.

Maybe when we all wake up Sunday morning we can do more to perpetuate a world without end. Plant a tree, walk instead of driving, invest more in local businesses to keep American money in America. Embrace another culture. Volunteer to mentor a child or check in on an elderly neighbor. Will any of these actions stop an Armageddon? Well, as the old saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it certainly did not fall in a day, either. Even though you can’t change the whole big world, you do have what it takes to change your own little corner of it.


The Beatles: The End

Growing Pains

So, I started this page on Facebook for my blog a couple of weeks ago, basically because while my thoughts on politics and on society are far from extreme, it seemed, to my dismay, that most in my circle of friends, for whatever reasons, just didn’t want their minds to go where my thoughts might take them. We all have our lives to lead, we all have responsibilities that often exhaust us to the point where we just don’t have the time or the energy to be the Fool on the Hill that gets to sit and watch the world spinning round (The Beatles, paraphrased quote from the actual song, Fool on the Hill.) The gist of the song, is that there is a guy, that sits on the hill, watching everyone below him living their lives. The question raised by the song, in my estimation, is whether HE is a fool for watching and learning about the happenings of the people below, or are we the fools for not taking the time during the hustle and bustle of our lives, to pay attention? Neither, the fool on the hill, or the people below are actually experiencing life completely. Is there a happy medium?

So, I started the blog, suggested it to a couple of friends and started commenting on my favorite Facebook pages, probing, I suppose, to see if there was anyone else out there who might want to share in a discussion, who might see even a bit of what I see, the way I see it. And people DID like it! So, now, I feel compelled to write for them, instead of for me, which was the whole antithesis of the reason behind the blog. So, Friday, when I usually try to post on my blog, was filled with the necessity to write something, and since it was Earth Day, I thought I should write about that. I tried, I had an idea, which I am sure I will later revisit, but my research was coming up VERY dry. Then I realized, that, being that we LIVE on Earth, every day should be Earth day and since it first started in the 1970s, maybe it’s about time we DO make taking care of our home an occurrence that happens everyday. Seriously? Do we only vacuum one day a year? Do we only take garbage out one day a year?  I am sure some of us do, but I will digress.

Earth Day, to me, is as much about the Earth as it is those who inhabit it. Generally, people who are HAPPY in their homes are more likely to take care of their homes. So, why aren’t we so happy?

There are powerful nations on this Earth that have been around for hundreds of years. The United States’ birthday is logged in the history books as July 4, 1776. In comparison to other countries, the US is still in its adolescence. In our youth, we emerged energetic and ready for action. We wanted our independence and we fought hard for it. We declared to our Mamma England, that we can do it (to quote my 3 year old) BY OURSELVES! And we did. We did do it by ourselves. We took our small corner markets and we prospered. Everyone had a craft or a purpose and we all made enough to get by. We opened our doors, borders, to people that could be our friends. And they came in and they worked hard and they prospered as well. Then the Industrial Revolution came about, and we still all knew what it meant to spill blood for a cause, whether it be independence from another country, or whether it meant the independence that comes along with pay day. We had the energy of happy, spirited children that had a goal and just went after it.

We were a savvy bunch. In America, you could go from rags to riches and no one could get in your way. Of course, as Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” may suggest, the savvier ones rose farther and higher. It was okay, though, because after the Industrial Revolution, working conditions evened out, thanks to the unification of the workers, and we transitioned into a glorious time just like the Donna Reed Show said it was. All innocence was lost after that, like when we find out the truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny and sex (for the first time!) We were divided over the necessity of American soldiers dying in a crazy place called Vietnam and we didn’t like the ones that came home, because TV footage had, for the first time, brought the inexplicable violence into our living rooms during dinner.

It’s then that we entered our adolescence, as a country. Questioning our leaders for the first time in a long time. Realizing the truth that, just like parents, the representatives that we hire to make decisions for us, really might not know best, because they are human and make mistakes and are susceptible to urges and inclinations that the rest of us are. So, we rebelled in the 1960s and even the 1970s, protesting, experiencing life in other “realms” and such. By the time the 1980s hit, we were freakin tired of all that- like a teenager that forms a little garage band and then can’t do our chores, like monitoring our government of the people.

Technology made it easy to get lazy. Why walk when you can drive? Why buy American when it’s cheaper to buy good made in China? Televisions and VCRs transitioned into where we are now. Who remembers what it felt like in 1776 when the Colonists decided that the freedom they wanted WAS worth fighting for? Who remembers being willing to lay down one’s life for a cause? It’s easy to say that we are a bunch of spoiled teenagers, the Democrats and the Republicans, fighting so much amongst ourselves that we have totally lost sight of the real goal and purpose, fairness, justice and freedom, and then we have the new kid on the block, the Tea Party that comes in and does nothing, but add to the turmoil.

It’s time to grow America up. It’s time that we decide if we want Corporate America to dictate how we live, like my parents that instituted a 2am curfew until a week before I got married. Ya don’t like the way things are going? You don’t like what America has decided you get to do? Then change it. We don’t have to do what Egyptians did, we don’t have to protest in the streets. Besides, what do most protests achieve? Recognition? Yes. Results? Sorry to say, not so much. Nowadays, everyone is screaming at each other and placing blame, but no one is coming up with actual solutions.

Mine? Well, I am not a big political theorist and I don’t have a doctorate in Sociology or anything. I do vote though, and I am a citizen. I am more than happy to admit when someone else has a better idea, but until then, I am gonna keep suggesting mine. It can’t hurt. What’s the easiest way to stop the One Percenters from dictating our lives as Mother England once did? Cut them out of the picture! Do I mean a revolution with guns and forts? No. This nation prospered when small business was king. When we had corner stores and corner bars and corner churches, we walked everywhere, which meant no pollution and very little obesity. We got our food from local farmers, which meant no preservatives and no weird effects. Everyone knew everyone and trusted everyone, which meant no abductions or molestations. We had small, corner schools, there were no Columbine incidents back then.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall. We used to be a melting pot, now, we are like a meal on one of those sectioned plates from the junior high cafeteria. Diversity is fine, but right now, we need to remember that the enemy is not the person next to you that may have a different job or a different color skin or even, dare I say, a different country of origin. We are fighting FOR the middle/ working class. That is what MADE America, through working hard and, actually, it’s what DEFINES us and sets us aside from so many other countries that don’t acknowledge the rights and the plights of the common folk. And we still have the fight and the work ethic in us- it’s in our heritage! This country can settle into adulthood just fine. We just have to step it up a notch, take responsibility and make it work. Stop the bickering, figure out a Plan B and make it happen. We have been up against so much worse and done so much better.

I am kind of silly to think that a blog with a whopping 32 likes is a responsibility or that anyone really cares if I update it regularly, but who knows, with enough dedication and steady work, I could make it into something more. On Friday, I spent most of the day doing a thousand and one other things, mostly legit, I have little kids, and also avoiding having to write, stepping up, and standing behind my ideas, but, at the “witching hour,” I sucked it up, like a grown up, and forced myself to write. Thirty two likes might not seem like a lot to pretty much anyone, but to me it does. It’s hope. It’s 32 people that just might see possibilities. That’s 32 people that know the difference between fighting for a cause and yelling at someone. It’s 32 people that take a little bit of time everyday to be The Fool.

Hope everyone had a great Earth Day! For you Christian folk…I hope your Good Friday was solemn and that your Easter is joyous!