I just learned from watching the 10 o’clock news that the world is supposed to end tomorrow at 4:00 P.M. I thought I had until 2012, gosh darn it.
Who is right? Reverend Harold Camping who resides, preaches, and prophesies in Oakland, CA. Or the 5125 year Mayan calendar, upon which the flopbluster movie 2012 was based.
Because of the late notice, I haven’t done much to prepare for the event. I don’t know how I missed the one Utah billboard planted near Lagoon that announced the earth’s demise or the thousands of placards and brochures being passed out across the nation or David Letterman’s Top 10 list of “How to Make the Apocalypse More Fun.”
I always thought that NO ONE knew the day or the hour that the Lord would return to the earth, not even ad men. I understood that “He cometh like a thief in the night” – NOT at 4:00 in the AFTERNOON when I’m attending a play with my sister and mother.
When I was little – not in girth but in height – I had nightmares about the world’s end. Of course, my dreams weren’t of earthquakes or tidal waves but of the BOMB. Fires roared everywhere around a big white house where I stood on the porch watching people running from the flames. It was pretty traumatic.
I had never heard of the RAPTURE before living in the south, and I happened to be in Georgia when the LEFT BEHIND series of books were flying off shelves. Everybody was talking about those novels, including the teachers and students at the school where I taught.
One day after the dismissal bell, I step out of my shoes, shed my sweater, and dropped whatever I was holding all in a small pile in on the floor. Then I rushed to the rest room. My colleague next door walked into the classroom to chat with me. All she found were the shoes, sweater, book and papers. Maria then announced that the Rapture had occurred and Renae had been taken; the rest of them were left behind.
This was quite surprising because my team mates were Baptists and Methodist – sects that really don’t think Mormons like me have a chance in h… of being caught up in the Rapture!
Before bidding you all farewell, I’d like to thank the Rev. Camping and the Mayans for the warning, but if I’m not ready for such an event by now, I doubt I will be.
If the good fellow is right THIS TIME, I won’t be able to finish my month of blogging every day, and I won’t be able to claim my badge from NaBloPoMo.
If he is wrong, I’ll announce it tomorrow right here in this spot. In the meantime, have a good day tomorrow as it just might be the last.
Writing My Life 
May 21, 2011 at 8:37 AM
When I was a little girl growing up in the south, I was terribly frightened coming home in the night after a sermon on the revelation and the rapture. I’d shudder thinking of all the graves opening up in the night and dead bodies flying up into the sky. I made the deliberate decision not to bring my children up with all that stuff. Hubby suggested we begin climbing the hill behind our house sometime in the afternoon, however, just in case we could hitch a ride. I’m not saying goodbye yet. See you tomorrow! 😀
May 21, 2011 at 9:38 AM
What a great idea, Alice. Hitching a ride and all, and it would be fun, too, if it is allowed. I don’t know the rapture rules, but somehow I don’ t think the guidelines permit sneaking into heaven. We’ll just have to hope for grace and good works, I’m afraid.
Thanks for your childhood story. Religious prophesies aren’t pounded from the Mormon pulpit, but we are reminded to be prepared through faithful living. It was Kruschev’s shoe-pounding rhetoric – “We will bury you” – that scared me to death.
I think parents need to ask their children what frightens them and then constantly reassure them that they are safe. From both a statistical and a spiritual viewpoint, they are.
As always, I LOVE your comments, and If I were a betting person, I’d bet we’ll chat again tomorrow.
Ciao, my friend.