I keep hearing about the end of the world. I've heard it all my life. My aunt is Mormon, and she has been preparing for some form af Armaggedon or disaster for as long as I can remember. Nuiclear bomb, Y2K. You should see her storage areas. areaS. I bet there's no one that can do as many things with dried lentils as her. But they keep changing the dates.

You know? I have never feared or dreaded the end of the world, or death. I have feared having a stroke and living that half-in, half-out kind of life I watched my Nana live. I dread the thought of radiation and the sickness that people have to endure before they die, or the slow death of living in an ohterwise contaminated world.. I would not like a Bataan death march. But death? Not afraid. It's over, fini.

What do you reckon people are afraid of with the literal end of the world? afterlife? judgement?

So, I'm wondering if the end of the world prediction is like a big bang end of the world, or just the end of the world as we know it? If it's the end of the world as we know it, what's the fear? The end of a comfort zone? That we can't survive any other way than the one we know right now?

Yeah, that's a little scarier. I don't think I would be ready for a world without technology. I sure wouldn't have a job. I've tried to learn some basics - the stuff my Gramma did as a young bride. Like I said, I been a learnin to make soap!! I been hangin my clothes to dry. I made my own sausage from a wild hog the WranglerButt shot and killed. I know how to make bread from scratch, and bake it in an earthen oven, a hole dug in the side of a hill. I can fry anythang!!! I need to learn to make my own pasta and grind my own corn. Tortillas. Cornbread. Staples of the south and southwest. But !!! What if the world as we know it comes to an end and there is no internet? No tv?

That scares the bejaysus outta me. For entertainment, I will have to start reading books and having real conversations again. yikes. Will we all sit around and just reminisce about the good old days? The best tv shows we ever ever saw? Quelle horreur.

So, it's the end of the world as we know it. Civilisation? What does that mean to you?

I think what really opened my eyes to a post apocalyptic world was reading The Stand by King when I was 19. The apocalypse in this case being a lethal flu that few were immune to. I had nightmares about the isolation and feelings of hopelessness he described.

I have made my own sausage - woohoo-but I bought the seasonings at the Supercenter. I ordered one of them online. I made one with the Cuisinart, and one with an antique meat grinder, to see if they tasted different. (Everyone swore the hand grinded one was better). I did all this in my heated, electrically lit kitchen, with the television on. I didn't want to miss Grey's Anatomy. We ate it outside one night with the stereo plugged in, and the lights on over the arbor. I made butter one day, but I didn't milk the cow or skim the cream. I do know how, but the store was right there!!!

In The Stand, after everyone with the superflu died, there were stores, but they were locked until someone broke a window and climbed in. The meat, milk and cheese was spoiled, of course, because there was no electricity. They had to be careful of what they picked to eat, or they could die. They had to figure out how to vent into the gas pumps, so they could travel by car or cycles. Luckily, they could get lighters (to start fires) from the stores. Clothes were no problem - there for the taking. When they went to different town, they picked a house they liked, removed the dead bodies, and moved in. He touched on how addicts and alcoholics were affected by the world as they knew it stopping. Made you wonder what would happen to people when there were no longer any drugs manufactured. (insulin, metformin for diabetics, xanax for anxiety.....) Free alcohol sitting in stores, no heroin coming across the border. He had one character hooked on prescription pain killers, trying to walk out of NYC, because the streets were jammed with cars with drivers dead at the wheel. She intentionally overdosed.

That book really made me think. What would I do? The economy freaks me out. There are people here that are getting their trailers repossessed, and living in their steel buildings - workshops. The people across the road have never had power. They have a back up generator, but they rarely use it. I know where my candles and lighters are, but I don't have a back-up generator. There's a creek that runs through WranglerButt's property, so, without electricity, that's a way to keep things cool for a day or so, in the six months of summer we have here. You would have to have watertight containers. I spose it could do for bathing, should running water ever become an issue. There are fish in it, and in the lake a couple miles from his house. There's plenty of game that runs through it. I should get a copy of a recipe for hasenpfeffer and squirrel stew before there is no internet. Learn how to tan hides, so I could barter leather - snakeskin belts.....

The thrust of The Stand was that without all the external clutter of the world as we know it - the clutter of noise, traffic in the air, on the streets, radio waves, hum and physical effects of electricity, the survivors became more psychic. Their minds were less cluttered, and they were able to telepathically communicate over many miles. Their collective consciousness was heightened. I wonder if it's really like that.

Oh yeah and another thrust was that good (energy) always wins.

But even some of the good people didn't make it. The strong survive and the weak are winnowed out.

Yes, we are part of a whole. And now, I'm thinking of that song - PEOPle.... needing PEOPLE.

Hahaha, that's more irritating and harder to get out of your head than your song.

Toodles!!

I say yeah, it's definitely coming. I won't be one of the ones who make it either. I'm not interested in making it though. I think it will be horrible. I'd rather rapidly embark on the true new frontier myself.

andii

Poetry, why has your friend settled on this date?

Hiya
BFgirl!

The Hopi predicted
this too, and Nostradamus, and I think the Bible

my
thoughts .....i think it might end as we know it. but i dont think
that neccessarily means people will die. perhaps it will be a new
beginning. a completely new way.