Lazy Sunday # 252: In The Days After Doomsday

So, once again, the world did not end. All those Mayan documentaries, far-fetched notions of New Age Prophets and the best efforts of Roland Emmerich have been for naught.

And now some of us really have to get our ass in gear if we’re going to get our Christmas shopping done.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in Life it’s that not much turns out the way you were led to believe it would. There’s always an unexpected wrinkle or two.

And when you can’t even count on the things that are pretty much predictable turning out as planned, you wonder why anybody wants to take on something as massive as the end of an entire planet.

Because even when that does happen, it’s probably not going to go exactly as all the computer models predict, let alone what was derived from ancient texts and stone carvings.

back in the early 70’s, some Doomsday cult predicted the end of the world to occur on a mid-summer Sunday afternoon. The news media played it up a lot. Mostly for yucks, of course. But still, when the day dawned they began counting down to the 3:00 pm (local) deadline.

Around then, my buddies and I were back from our Sunday touch football game, splayed on the porch and well into a case of 24.

Then we noticed the sky darkening and a huge storm cloud rolling in over the city, unleashing thunder, lightning and a torrential downpour at exactly the appointed hour.

Like most Summer storms, it blew itself out in ten minutes. But there was a moment when (based on all the hype) you wondered, “Could this really be happening?”.

But it wasn’t. Although, next morning the spokesman for said cult announced that they had not been wrong in their prediction and that, the world as we knew it, had in fact, ended.

But you didn’t hear much about them after that. I think they all quit the cult and got jobs in an Apple store instead.

And still –- every time somebody sets a new date for Doomsday, the media is right there to hype it, revealing by those who take them seriously the true nature of their audience.

So now, as I hastily cobble together my Christmas to do list, I’m once again wondering what happens to those who buy into “The End Times” and how they cope with having to revise not only their future plans but the way they make sense of the world.

Roland “2012” Emmerich, meanwhile, has been relegated to making action films with Channing Tatum and prepping a sequel to “Independence Day”.

Here’s the story of one guy who got Doomsday wrong a year ago. Followed by a little disclaimer NASA felt the need to release this week.

I hope that finally wraps our latest Doomsday.

And then you can –- Enjoy the Sunday so much time and money was spent telling you it might never happen.

We Will Forget from Garret Harkawik on Vimeo.