The Brooklyn Adventurer: Our World Is Lovelier than We Think it Is

I'm not sure if you are aware, but according to various sources, the world is set to end on Saturday.

In two days.

Yes, that's right. You heard me. The apocalypse is "supposed" to happen on May 21, 2011. Forget everything you heard about 2012, this stuff is coming early.

If you haven't yet heard about this, a group called Family Radio has been spreading terror, or as many of their advertising campaigns say, "sounding the trumpet," or reminding you to "save the date" for Saturday, May 21, 2011 because, oh, right... you're going to die. If you die, that's the good thing. You're going to be "raptured" or taken up to heaven with God. If you don't die, well, that stinks, because you have about six monthes of hellish torture before you are actually sent to the bad place. How did they determine this? Apparently, this guy, from the USA, found a mathematical code in the bible, and used it to determine the date of the rapture. Please, don't mind that the Bible wasn't written in English and, oh, right, wasn't written directly by God. There is a lot of historical documentation that people wrote the majority of the Bible- perhaps with the guidance of God, yes, I grant that, but he didn't just go BAM! BIBLE! And it fell out of the sky. As cool as that would be, that totally didn't happen. Ten commandments, maybe. Whole Bible? Yeah, no.

I have all kinds of problems with this upcoming advertising campaign. Scaring the shit out of nice, normal people is my first problem. I'm scared. I'm pretty nice. I donate my time to working at a charity that provides free acting training for low-income high school students in New York City, give homeless people muffins on occassion and generally try my best to be polite and courteous. Not that I haven't made mistakes, I absolutely have, but I'm genuinely sorry when I hurt people, even if it isn't intentional. I think I'm a decent person. And, I am a bit scared. However, I'm not as scared as some people. I read recently about a woman who sold her home, and used all of the money to fund this advertising campaign to warn people. She realized that she didn't have enough time left in her life to have a kid, like she had always dreamed about, so she gave up everything. Stories like hers have been circulating, and I just feel so badly for them. I feel bad for them if they are wrong, obviously, because there go their life savings, and there goes the would-be kid's college fund. But, I also feel bad if she is right- because she just then spent the last few monthes of her life warning people about something that was totally inevitable, and that they could not change, instead of enjoying herself. Also, that she sent her money there instead of, you know, helping starving children, or AIDS research. I just feel badly.

Mostly, I think that these people cannot possibly be correct. The number thing seems sketchy, that's for sure, but wow, have they noticed how awesome people are? I wrote about this just a few days ago in lieu of the humanitarian, compassionate, and just overall sane response that people have been having to the death of Osama Bin Laden. People seem to be getting nicer, and the world is a more peaceful place than at basically any other point in history. If God wanted to punish the human race, why would they punish the people alive today? The people I constantly see smiling at strangers (yes this really happens in New York City), holding doors for one another (if you don't do this in NYC you are going to get some dirty looks), donating to charities, creating beautiful works of art, helping one another up stairs, encouraging compassion.... these people are supposed to take the fall for all of humanity? What is going on here? I thought God was supposed to be loving.

So, there is my opinion. The Apocalypse, or Rapture, or Judgement Day is not coming on May 21, 2011 because, well, if God is up there and has been paying attention, he will see that we aren't that bad, and he has no good reason to smite us. I think this world is too pretty. The little birds sing lovely songs, going about their lives oblivious to the works of men half of the time- are they going to be destroyed by an earthquake sent by a God who is supposed to be benevolent? My logic is screaming, "No".

Maybe I'll eat my words come Saturday. If I do, though, we'll all either be already dead, or enduring so much hellish torment that laughing about it my incurable optimism will make us all feel a bit better about it. In that case, I feel like I have nothing to lose.

Calm down. You aren't going anywhere on Saturday. Our world is lovelier than we think it is, and people are better than we think they are. At least, I think so.

I have faith in our human race, faith in the future, and, dare I say it, faith in God.

I mean, just look at these flowers. See how pretty they are? Why would God burn that?