Growing Pains

In the grand scheme of life, I don't have any answers. I don't know how you stop violence. I don't know how you put an end to corruption. I don't understand people who are threatened by someone different than them having equal rights. I cannot comprehend the pervasive ignorance that seems ready to rip apart our society.

What strikes me at the moment, aside from the breathtaking ignorance regarding so many issues and just general day to day humanity, is the way some people point to each and every upheaval as proof the end times are upon us. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, famine, strife, you name it, it's a sign the end is nigh.

Surely in the history of the world, these things have never, ever occurred before. It's got to be a sign of something... more.

When I was a kid, I had a big hang up on death. An elementary school student with panic attacks about the End. I didn't even know anyone who died until I was about 12 years old, and it was a great aunt I'd met maybe twice. But I would silently freak out in science class whenever any topic strayed into the idea of large scale, cosmic disaster. It seemed at least once a year some cult or religion (but mostly cults) were predicting the Big End. It terrified me. The designated day would come and go and I'd slowly relax until the next headline about a close call with an asteroid, a massive volcanic eruption, nuclear weapons, civil war in foreign countries, killer bees, ozone depletion, or wackjob predicting a great spaceship was coming to save the true believers. Y2K. 9/11. Mayan calendar. I got older, predictions and disasters kept coming.

At every turn, inevitably people commented on the surety that The End was a sneeze away. And if you're a history buff at all like me, you'll realize that's the way it's been for all of recorded human history. Thunder once meant the gods were angry.

I'm one of those weird people who doesn't believe science and faith have to be mutually exclusive. There is a clear, rational scientific reason for thunder. And the rain that hopefully coincides with it is so needed in my area most people I know cheer on the sound and hope it's building to a decent storm.

My point is there has been mass genocide throughout history. Forgetful and willfully ignorant, it repeats. Women, men, color, religion, sexual orientation, political leaning, location, star-bellied or none upon thars, there's a mass casualty situation for just about anyone. There has been mass destruction and loss of life from volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, fires, droughts, etc since the dawn of life. In the United States, as I expect in many other countries, there are building codes and public safety systems in place to help prevent the kind of loss of life that has happened before. Natural disasters are not a modern experience.

NOAA's historic hurricane landfall map - 150 years worth

For every disease we seem to get a handle on, something newer, scarier and more deadly seems to appear. I remember the rampant and aggressive ignorance surrounding the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. How horrifying was Ebola when you first heard about it? Today's disease du jour is Zika. In WWII, aside from STDs, there were still fully operational tuberculosis sanitariums. I had a relative die in one. Smallpox, measles, cholera, bubonic plague, malaria, even the flu wiped out scores of people.

Man, is this a lighthearted romp of a post or what?

As far as the faith side of things, I want to believe that humanity has come so far. I know we have so much more to go. I have a hard time accepting, at least from other perfectly imperfect humans, that The End is upon us. Fear, panic, a need to reconcile atrocities committed by one another is what I think fuels these predictions.

Life has this way of moving on.

The painful lurches in our society at the moment? That's progress trying to claw its way out. Growth hurts. I really, deeply, sincerely wish it didn't have to. I would love for hateful people to wake up one morning with widespread epiphanies causing people to be kind to one another, accepting, tolerant, respectful. So that's what I see going on (hopefully). Not a sure sign of The End (knock on wood), but the signs that growth is coming.