Last Weekend on Earth

Welcome to the Last Weekend on Earth as we on the WG2E Street Team commemorate the close of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar’s 13th b’ak’tun, or Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21, (or 23, depending on which egghead you are listening to) in this year of our Lord 2012. Although the Mayans themselves seemed to largely expect nothing significant to come of the date, it does offer a chance to reflect on what we would be doing should the world as we know it decide to come to a screeching, pull-the-emergency-chain halt a few days from now.

This may or may not seem entertaining depending on one’s perspective. Personally, I tend to avoid dystopian fantasies, as I find they distract me from concentrating on the evaluation our dystopian reality. Lately, though, I have noticed how themes in popular culture seem to be speaking to the group mindset of those participating. Case in point: zombies.

Have you noticed that popular culture seems lately obsessed with the concept of an outbreak of one kind or another resulting in an influx of great numbers of the living dead? Walking corpses prowling about seeking the unaffected for the purposes of bloody and noisy consumption is a popular meme, not only in the media, but also in marketing. That’s hilarious, I know, until one realizes that the Zombie Apocalypse is a sub-textual reference to an anticipated and extended period of social unrest; one leading to a contest of survival between dehumanized elements and the rest of us.

Not so funny anymore, is it? (Tactical tip: Gunfire draws zombies. It is best to use an edged weapon to start.)

Another theme emerging from musings of the slightly less sub-textual involves open expressions of preparing for the “SHTF scenario.” For those of you less well-versed in acronymic interpretation, that refers to the point in time symbolized by a convergence of a generous supply of dung and an electrically-powered air moving device. People in this clique don’t bother referencing walking corpses. They prefer their corpses neatly stacked in layers at the front of their homes, providing soft cover and acting as a none-too-subtle warning to the next band of marauding miscreants.

So what exactly is it that has people so damned nervous?

Those of us watching have come to realize, particularly after the results of the last presidential contest, that great numbers of our fellow citizens apparently have lost basic abilities relating to discernment of character and the ability to grasp simple economic concepts such as debt loading and how it relates to the valuation of currency. With the fiscally illiterate now outnumbering the cognoscenti, it is simply a matter of time before the house of cards built with imaginary dollar bills comes crashing down. Once that happens, the cities will run out of food first. Bands of feral humans will then spread out in foraging behavior, and at that point the unprepared are basically schtupped.

Hope you have beer in the house when that happens.

Psalm 110 tells us that: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” (NASB) People have quite simply become comfortable and self-absorbed enough that they have forgotten first how to incorporate information that has endured longest because it matters most. In spiritual terms, that is information supporting decisions deemed most important because they have the longest lasting consequences.

People of such mind don’t feel the need to read the Bible to guide their lives anymore, because they have Siri on their iPhone. Any issue more complicated can be resolved by watching the ladies (clear throat) on The View or Jon Stewart’s comedy. The fear of God is lost, and with it the foundations of wisdom, which we define as the ability to anticipate consequences. The mounting wave of real-world aftereffects from their resultantly stark stupidity can, for a time, be pinned on a predecessor or falsely attributed to political opposition.

Until, that is, the zombies come.

So, we arrive in a rather roundabout way to the point where I am supposed to answer the question: What would I do with my last weekend on Earth? Well … I would hold those dearest to me while time yet allowed. Pray, of course, that God has good use for all that is about to happen. Set up a tower of water and another of food for the Perimeter felines, just in case they are on their own for a while. Possibly I would work a whetstone over the edge forward of the sweet spot of my century-plus-old Bhojpure kukri, the only portion of the blade which cannot yet shave hair from my arm.

I would hope, should we be gone when the time of trouble comes, that people can put to good use the contents of our home, which we have filled with useful things that are far better to have than to need. To answer the contemptuous secular bumper sticker: Yes, you can have my stuff after the Rapture. But you also need to feed my cats.

Most of all I would spend as much time as I could writing, in the hope that I could cast a last clue to another soul who was one short. Faith comes by hearing, after all, and that by the Word of God. After follow the gifts of the Spirit, such as discernment, through which worlds—found within us as well as on the outside—can begin again out of any circumstance.

May we all move on to Christmas now?

Choose to Love, -DA

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And hop on over to the other blogs for our LWoE:
Anna Erishkigal
Stacy Green
Catie Rhodes
PJ Sharon