The End?

Today’s earthquake and and the tsunami that followed started to make me think about 12/21/2012. If you are unfamiliar with this date, it is supposedly the day the world will come to an end. You can read about many of these here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon. Now, I am old enough to not put much faith into things like Mayan calendars, but I must admit the similarities of the “predictions” of various cultures in very interesting. I find myself watching History channel a lot as of late, watching shows about Nostradamus’ predictions, end of the world theories and what not. These scare the crap out of me. The thought of a landslide in Africa causing a tsunami that wipes out the East Coast of the US all the way to Chicago is scary.

That aside, what worries me about 2012 is that it may become a self fulfilling prophecy. While I watch these shows and understand that they are talking about things that could possibly happen, I know that doesn’t meant that they WILL in fact happen. But, there are those who take this very seriously. 2012 WILL be the end. As media continues to cover this more and more frequently leading up to the date, more and more people will start to freak out. Potentially people with the ability to say “The world’s ending away, let me release this virus”. “Let me wipe Israel off the Earth”. There are too many unstable people out there that are just looking for a reason to kill a ton of people. If the world is coming to an end, what true consequences are there to their actions?

This is an area in which the media really needs to watch what they say, what they portray. Movies like 2012, coming out next Summer are meant as fun movies, but the truth is, this will scare a lot of people. I would expect that there will be a lot of problems leading up to the date with long lines for groceries, gas, etc as people stock up to try to baracade themselves from the end. If people are afraid that there will not be food or shelter to protect their families, all hell will break out. Shoot…. see it is too easy to ramble on about this.

Summer Heat

Today’s weather is perfect. It is a little above 80 degrees. I am enjoying it. There is an upcoming problem though… that would be the next week. Temperatures are supposed to be near 100 this weekend and pretty much all next week. That is hot. To make matters worse, my oldest has a soccer tournament this weekend, so we’ll be sitting in the sun most of the day. That is going to be rough.

So I have been wondering a lot lately about the “afterlife”. What is in store for us? Generally speaking, I believe we die, go to Heaven (hopefully) or Hell (please not). That said though, I tend to believe there are ghosts and I do believe I save seen some. I will save those stories for another time. So that leads me to believe there is a between state. Where you haven’t ascended to Heaven nor have you been banished to Hell. I have also heard stories and watched movies about people believe they have lived and can recall their past lives. I don’t really believe that. While I believe that we may be given an opportunity to come back to Earth to live another life, if we wind up in Heaven, I find the nonsense about past life recall…. well nonsense. If you believe in God, than you believe God is powerful enough to make that memory one that cannot be recovered.

While I would like to think death is like a skinemax movie (I can roam the Earth, drinking beer, hanging out with my friends and watching girls undress) I am guessing it is not like that at all. I have a hard time imagining what it will be like. Part of me believes that I will become this mass of light and energy, then the Catholic in me kicks in and I believe I will ascend to Heaven in my bodily form to live in bliss for eternity. I like that idea a lot. I don’t know if I would want to return to Earth. The endless possibilities of returning to a worse life are enough to think I will stay right where I am. I have lived a good life so far. I have a loving family, I never really wanted for much in my childhood. I wasn’t rich by any means, but my parents always worked hard to provide for us. I have a lot of complaints, but in terms of the life I was given and the family and friends I have, I have been truly blessed.

Now, if I cannot go to Heaven, I will take option 2, hanging out with my friends, drinking beer and watching naked ladies. Hopefully I have a nice pair of kicks.

The Cough

I am sick, again. I thought it was the flu about 2 weeks ago when I was achey and getting hot and cold. Never got a fever, but would start getting really cold when I was inside and hot if I walked someplace where it was cold. It may have been male menopause, but I’m not sure. What I was left with, after a few days of hell. was a cough. This wa not any cough, however. This was a cough that would wake the entire house up at 1, 2, 3 and 4:00AM. This was a cough that would not go away and only had one volume, 11. I had no stuffy nose or leaky sinuses. I took cough medicine. It would last 4 hours and I would wake everyone up at 2:00AM. Very helpful. I went to see my Dr and was given 3 prescriptions. I slept the whole night for the first time in 2 weeks. The cough is still here though. When I read something funny, I start coughing and cough for about 10 minutes. This is ok with me. It beats the brain rattling, lava throat inducing hacks that have tortured me for 2 weeks. Ok, torture might be too strong of a word. Bothered immensely is more like it.

So, it has been over a month now since my Father was killed in an accident. It still feels unreal to me. Though I am sleeping better now than I had been, I still have nights where I end up crying for a couple hours. I end up having to go downstairs so I don’t wake up my wife. It’s hard. I want to pick up the phone and call him, but I’ll never get the chance to do that again. It’s a personal tragedy that I am not sure I will ever fully recover from. I loved my Dad. He was a hero. Just today a friend of his left me a voicemail telling me how uch he appreciated my Father. Earlier this week I got a card from someone I work with. Seems like there are constant reminders. Every time I see a Dodge Durango, I want to tell the owner to be careful, that their car might mistakenly go into reverse and kill them in their driveway. I can’t get over the feeling that if I do, that people will think I am a raving lunatic. Maybe that’s ok though. It would be worth it if it prevented someone else from experiencing the loss that I have. I don’t know how people survive losing entire families in accidents.

I’m a firm believer in God. I say my prayers twice a day. I send my kids to Catholic school. I have found myself angry at Him for the first time in my life. I told Him that in my prayers the other Morning. I do not believe it is fair for good people to be dying while there are so many horrible people in this world. How fair is it that my Father had to die, yet some guy whose molested 50 kids is out walking the streets? Where is the justice in that? If God truly loves us, I wonder why he would choose to leave us with such terrible people. If I was going to choose someone to leave my children with, it would be someone who is loving, caring and kind. Not someone who is going to kill them. At the same time God I was mad at him, I also asked him for his forgiveness. Someday I hope to see my Dad again.