The End Of The World

I am sitting here today at an anonymous desk, in an anonymous cubicle in one of many corporate towers of a typical North American downtown. Out the window, it snows and rains at the same time in what has become the new norm of global warming weather.

Everywhere, there’s talk about the latest mindless massacre, whether at the hands of a rogue state or the ones of a crazed first-world suburban armed to the teeth. It stirs ignorant debates among powerless citizens trying to make sense of the unexplainable, while the real decision-makers look away in aloofness, fiddling with the quarterly reports of their investments and the latest political popularity polls. And then there’s talk that the world is ending.

The Mayans never predicted the apocalypse, and there won’t be any special planetary alignment on that day, either. No red dwarf planet flying astray to hit us, no rapture. Nothing.

Still, I would like the world to end, this Friday.

I would like that greed, which was edified into a planetary system, would come down crashing. I would like that our wasteful and oblivious consumption of nature’s resources would implode. I would like the hate, fear and ignorance used against the Peoples of the Earth to fade and disappear. I would like the barriers, barricades and fences erected to separate, discriminate and segregate to shatter. I would like the system to suffer a fatal error and shut down permanently.

Then, maybe, a new world could appear. Forced to invent new ways, we would look to our neighbours, close and far, and extend a hand. We would realize that the world fares only as well as our environment does. We would judge our success by how the poorest, weakest and most needy among us are treated. We would look at children to rekindle our creativity and open our hearts. We would ask for forgiveness, make amends and forgive. We would take responsibility. We would rebuild a true spirit of community.

Maybe we would seek to think on our own, to better ourselves through compassion and understanding. To be the change we want in this world. We could learn to make choices for a greater good, not for our own sake. We could tolerate, be curious and respectful. We could embrace our vulnerability.

Maybe we could look back on History and really take note. Decide to address issues and problems in a completely different way, create a value system where everyone wins, where collaboration and mutual gain are the guidelines, where global peace, freedom and well-being are the prime directives.

This is what I wish on the world, for December 22, 2012. Henceforth.