“We are all made of stories. Not only what we experience, but the meaning we assign to those experiences.” -Leah Lamb
“Apocalypse” is being bandied about lately. The use of this word—particularly if you’re religious—is increasingly shaping the meaning of current events.
Perhaps the Apocalypse has been declared happening for centuries and by now it’s just a weird habit. I can only testify to the last few decades.
Floods drowned several cities last year, hurricanes flattened whole countries, and people spoke of these “apocalyptic end times”. May I remind you that great majorities of the earth have flooded at various times throughout history (#Noah). Nearer to our time? Up to 4 million people were killed in China’s 1931 floods. Google it and you’ll find that floods are fairly regular Earth cycles.
Pretty much every country’s citizens (with the possible exception of Switzerland, haha) have polarized on any given issue. And I don’t mean they sort of disagree; people are rhino-charging the extreme far sides, each side believing their far side is way righter than the other—which isn’t even close to an apocalypse, but it still gets slapped with that label.
This year, California goes without power yet still rages with wildfires, and here we go again… This must be the apocalypse. I wonder if the same dire declarations were made when Chicago burned down in 1871—on the same day as the Peshtigo fire that destroyed twelve communities in Wisconsin, killing 2500 people. Did you even know about the Peshtigo fire? Me neither. Guess that wasn’t the end times.
Too many leaders and potential leaders of our baby nation have hit the terrible twos en force and we hear from pulpits, lecterns, alters and stages; “it’s definitely the apocalypse.”
Um… Nero, Pope Alexander Vl, Gaddafi, Herod, Timur, Queen Mary l, Hitler, Stalin. None of their atrocities ended the world. Our power-hungry leaders playing patty-cake with billionaires and verbally kicking each other, probably won’t either.
I do agree we’re in AN apocalypse. It’s quite different than what’s widely believed.
Apocalypse is a Greek word that means “hidden things being revealed.”
The apocalypse isn’t about “end times”, it’s about REVELATION.
Corruption on ALL sides of our government aisles is being revealed—and I do mean to the four cardinal directions as well as up, down, within and without. Abuse, and trafficking of people worldwide, is being revealed. Money systems, politics, war, and pollution are being revealed as what they actually are, instead of the fairytales told to us—which we’ve swallowed to pretend it’s all comfortable and justifiable for far too long.
Namely I’d like to address these two stories; “There is no better way.” And “It’s human nature”.
Both of those are bullshit stories.
There’s even an entire “Post-Apocalyptic” genre for thousands of books being written where populations are decimated, and any humans remaining, become savages for no particular reason. It’s embarrassing. Writers and storytellers are supposed to safeguard the creative power of words. Wield them for the betterment of us all. At the very least, we’re supposed to know the basic meaning.
So yes, we’re being lambasted, bombarded, and on good days, merely peppered with revelations. Hidden things are being revealed and it ain’t pretty, polite or even remotely pleasant.
But it is necessary.
And it can offer us some end times if we choose it. The end of allowing profits to be more important than people. The end of manufacturing and then dumping deathly substances. The end of polarizing to far sides and then flinging our own shit at each other like bored zoo monkeys. The end of allowing any abuse of anybody.
Here are two better stories—which also happen to be true: There’s not just one, there are a LOT of better ways to do things. Human nature is love and connection and creative and beautiful.
In this Apocalypse, which stories will you keep believing? What new stories will you live?
What revelations will we abhor—and then do something about?
I rejoice in this Apocalypse—this Revealing—and the endings it will bring. I believe what’s ending is making room for some pretty spectacular beginnings.
If you’re feeling horrified, stuck, or despairing, here’s some suggestions.
-Change your perspective; Study history—real stories, not the masked narratives presented by people with a religious, academic, or profit agenda. You might find that we’ve evolved in kindness and abundance right along with technology. The challenge now is to wisely distribute that abundance.
-Advocate for trying brand new ways of doing things. Understand we’ll get it wrong a few times before we get it right. But it’ll be better than sticking with what we know hasn’t worked—which describes too many of our governmental and world systems. The ole’ “better the devil you know” philosophy is the hallmark of cowards.
-Stop consuming news. It’s largely untrue, and carefully crafted to be negative. It’s all intended to harness your buying, voting, and discontentment power to very specific agendas. I don’t advocate for any political side because they’re equally dysfunctional. If you need to know what’s going on in the world, try goodnewsnetwork.org or positive.news or dailygood.org. Better yet, just talk to people. Find out what’s happening with your friends, family and neighbors. They’re your actual world.
-Count your blessings. Every day. Every blessing. On average we only notice a tiny percent of the goodness that surrounds us. Start noticing. It’ll change the story you tell about life. It’ll bring your very own glorious apocalypse.
DD Adair 