Monday, July 8, 2013

Here At The End of Things

You know, I was raised with the belief that the world will end any day now. And once again, I'm being told by someone that the horrible flaming Tribulations and Chastisements are upon us.

(Source.)
Apparently, this is because the faithful are being persecuted. At least, the faithful who matter.

I mean, the Jews have been through thousands of years of crap and misery, but the world's still here.

Africans of every descent and faith have been shot at, hunted down, kidnapped and forced in to slavery, and many still live in some of the most horrific warzones on the planet...but the world is still here.

The monks in Tibet are being persecuted horribly. The world spins on.

The Middle East has been rife with various religious factions for longer than I've been alive, but the world was here to welcome me when I was born.

Hell, moving away from religion, there are millions of women every day who suffer unimaginable horrors. And guess what? Still here.

Gays? Lesbians? Bi? Trans? Anyone whose skin doesn't match that of the largest population in the area they reside in? All tormented, killed, persecuted.

The world is ending now, apparently, because two priest have been shot and killed. One in Egypt, one in Syria. Also, it seems that they're just not making many Catholic priests any more.

If this reads like I'm not hardly trying, it's because I'm not. I've heard this song before, and I'm not going to dance.

The world didn't end in the year 2000. The world didn't end in either of the major economic crashes of the last century. The End didn't get out of bed on 12/12/12 or 12/21/12 (depending on which conspiracy site you like.) Women can vote, and the world didn't grind to a halt. Gays can marry in multiple states, and we're still here. We didn't nuke ourselves into oblivion during the Cold War.

More specifically, the world didn't end at Christmastime any one of the seven years running it was predicted to me when I was growing up. I'm gay, my sister's bi, we both live alternative lifestyles, we're both pagan, and our lives are no better or worse than my parents. My brother who's still Catholic was just blessed with a beautiful baby girl, and his life is no more or less hard than anyone who just had a kid.

There's no empirical difference between what you believe in and the circumstances of your life. It changes from place to place depending on who's in charge. And sadly, none of the vast suffering on anyone's part seems to be enough for any deity to stand up and wipe the board clean.

So yeah. The end is not nigh. At least, no more nigh than it always is.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you. Thank you for taking every thought I've had today, and all through growing up, and putting it so coherently and succinctly.

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