Posted on 10/24/2015 2:42:28 PM PDT by lee martell
I occasionally listen to George Noory, on a radio show called Coast to Coast. This program used to be hosted by Art Bell. It features a dialog about paranormal experiences, UFO's, debates about green, evolution and religious issues. Every so often, so often, a guest will come on the air saying we are 'in the last days' before the apocalypse. Most recently, there was talk of The Shemitah; a belief of events starting with the appearance of a Blood Moon, that eventually lead to the end times. The end of the shemitah year was on Sept. 13th. The date passed by uneventfully, with neither Israel or the U.S. shown to be in any great peril.
I used to really keep up with those 'ending dates', a small part of me expecting something to happen. The last time I really fell for it (privately of course, as I would never voice an expectation that some would say borders on 'nutty') was during the summer of 1993; the summer of the Hale-Bopp Comet. The comet was discovered by two men simultaneously. Alan Hale, an astronomer in California and Thomas Bopp, a construction store manager who was a stargazer as a hobby discovered what some call the last Great Comet of the Twentieth Century. Great Comets are sometimes seen as harbingers of doom,i.e. the Great Comet of 1861, which appeared just before the Civil War, or the 1811 Great Comet, said to have come just before Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The Hale-Bopp had no major wars associated with it, but it's appearance coincided with a peak of general interest in celestial phenomenon and a popularity of paranormal talk shows, such as Art Bell's Coast to Coast. Many UFO buffs began the suggestion that there was an extraterrestrial spacecraft following in the tail of the Hale-Bopp Comet.
How about you, do you, or does someone close to you spend an inordinate amount of time living in the past or living in a state of waiting for the future, where the grass is always just a little bit greener than what we seen today?
Unfortunately, some took this speculation as literal fact. Enter the California cult named Heaven's Gate: a group based on UFO idolatry and ideation. Heavens Gate was led by Marshall Applewhite. In March of 1997, as Hale-Bopp was at its most prominent in the sky, 39 members of the cult committed ritual suicide, believing their souls would ascend to the UFO supposedly trailing the comet.
The news of this tragic event made me stop and think. Why was I so 'eager' for there to be an 'end times' scenario? What was I wanting to avoid or get away from? Had I given up thinking that I would find happiness in this physical existence? This was a healthy meditation for me to have. Since then, though I follow some celestial events and do listen to Coast to Coast (except when they spend too much time discussing Hell), I think more for myself. I try to live for the present, and take more time when listening to others. I try to find something of value in everyone I encounter. No, I don't always succeed, but I consider this a worthy goal, an uplifting approach to enter each day.
I give up.
Had two doctors try to kill me, so just biding time...
The world ends every day for someone, somewhere.
We all go Home, eventually.
No sense rushing it.
But the bright side is, somewhere, someone else is born at the exact same moment.
So it all works out.
The last guy who predicted the end of the world seemed genuinely sad when his prediction did not come true.
and I feel fine...
[[But the bright side is, somewhere, someone else is born at the exact same moment.]]
I’m sorry, but no one can replace me-
Just wondering which end.
Haha!!! Except for you Bob, of course!!!!
I would have liked to live the last third of my life in a moral and good America, ruled by saintly men and women, where the rule of law means something, and where people still get emotional over the singing of the national anthem...
and where God was still in all of our hearts.
I’ve always ignored the Doomsday warnings.
I have no intention of worrying,or even thinking,about something over which I have no control.
.
“...where people still get emotional over the singing of the national anthem...”
You do still live there.
Not everyone in the country is liberal assh*le traitor.
“...and where God was still in all of our hearts...”
All that matters, at the end of your day, is your heart. You can only control your own life (to a degree), not what others believe.
You answer to the person in the mirror only while you’re here, and then to God ultimately.
That’s about it.
That was beautiful.
You couldn’t have written it. You’re obviously a gun nut considering your tagline. Gun nuts could never come up with something so touching. /s
I’m 47. Figured in my teens why bother trying, the world is going to end anyway. I realized mid 20s it wasn’t and got some schooling and a job!!
I’ve had great times 3 trips to Vegas, 2 bachelor parties.
A million great times with my big italian family :)
owned my convertible black leather z28 :)
and bad times
pop died when i was 14.
dealt with depression on and off since.
brain injury at 37 AND 39. mostly recovered,.
That’s life. It’s great and good and terrible and not so good.
And it ends when it ends. the end is coming too fast as it is!!! i dont worry about it anymore!
Very true. No need to rush it. The cycle of life will continue, unabated.
We are not waiting for the end of the world but have prepared for it. :-)
Mark Twain, American writer and humorist, was born when Halley’s comet appeared and died when it returned.
When one ends, another one starts. So both ends are the same end.
I glad that you’ve mostly recovered from your brain injury. You probably had to relearn how to do things. That means being somewhat humble for a while.
My old man died in my arms when I was 15. Combat vet, Airborne, WWII. Survived being wounded, survived some of the worst combat of the war, and died from a stroke at 54. But he lived a Lifetime in that short life. Loved his family, his Country, and God.
We get what we get from God. Either way, good or bad, He expects us to do the best we can with it.
It’s life. It’s fickle. It’s beautiful. It’s tragic, It’s Epic. Its filled with love, sadness, laughter, tears, and all points in between. You look in your childrens’ eyes, you see wonder, hope, beauty, and the future. You watch the light fade from your parents’ eyes, and you realize you have a heart and how much it hurts when it breaks, and you also realize that your time is limited as well.
But it’s life.
And our job is to live it, and to the best extent we can, be good people... and leave this place a little better than when it was given to us.
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