Monday, October 25, 2010

Can You See the End of the World From Where You Are?

I have been going through a period of deep melancholy.....quite different from what I used to experience as depression so I have avoided blogging for fear it might be contagious.  

However, yesterday I received an email from a dear friend who shares many of my values, loves and hates and she was so weighed down with the state of things that I realized my own deep Ultramarine blue condition was not that bad after all......I. at least,  have recently developed a few tools to deal with "whats-the-use" and I decided to try to cheer her up with Lois's methods of coping with the End of the World.

So  I wrote her this email...........

Dearest..............
I keep thinking about your most recent letter and your worries about the fate of the world and realized one significant difference between us.  I used to wring my hands just as you are doing and then, not too long ago, I realized that the world is indeed going to hell but, even if I should live another 10 or so years, it won't be completely rotten in my lifetime !!   (probably not even in my young cousins' lifetimes that is, and beyond that is not for me to worry)  I think it might take a pretty long time for the Extremists and the Mongol Hordes to gallop in and completely destroy all signs of civilization.

 So, with that thought in mind I have really been able to shrug most of it off .......it is too bad that the world has to slip back into another set of the Dark Ages or go up in a huge bang or whatever, but as long as I don't have to experience it at its worst I don't really give a damn anymore.  I wish you could adopt my philosophy........it makes things so much easier.

I used to be something of a control freak too and would get frantic when I looked into the future (based on how things were going at the moment).  Now I feel that I have tried  to do my utmost to keep Complete Disaster from overtaking the world and have not succeeded  (up to the age of 83).......that is quite long enough I think.  And after all, it is not my personal failure .......lots of others have failed with me.  Conquering pestilence is apparently easy compared to trying to win over insanity and stupidity.
(I do not know why the rest of this page is in smaller type face nor do I care.........see, my new philosophy is actually working.)
 
  I will be damned if I will waste my remaining moments grieving over what might happen after I have shuffled off this mortal coil. (Yes, I CAN be that selfish, finally) 

By the way, dear....I can follow your dreadful scenario and see it in 3 D.......  can certainly envision an Extremist Muslim takeover of the world happening and the downfall of civilization as we know it, but, as I was falling asleep last nite I suddenly thought of something......Do you really think that China is going to allow that to happen????   (or  the Extreme Right Wing Republicans for crissake? )  Not bloody likely,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, so your scenario is not necessarily the only possible one......there may be worse.

I also had a moment of extreme clarity when I saw the SOLUTION...........and why no one has thought of this before is beyond me,     All our scientists have to do is stop whatever nonsense they are working on and concentrate  on inventing an odorless, tasteless gas that would render everyone who breathes it INFERTILE................drop a few cannisters all over  the "enemy"( whoever we determine them to be) and wait a few generations for things to improve.

Now.....won't that help you to sleep better ??


Love, Lo