Eschatology

If the success of a marriage was contingent on a shared, or at least similar, taste in movies, Sequoia and I would have broken up a long time ago. The boy loves horror and monsters. If it has some kind of alien creature or genetic mutation that racks up a significant body count, he’s in.  Extra points if there’s a screaming loud vehicle chase, be it car or space ship.  And of course, explosions; there must be explosions.  Examples of the genre: Alien, Predator, Alien Vs. Predator. You get the drift.

As you can guess, I’m not a fan. I’m more of a costume drama kind of gal. That said, I do love sci-fi, especially the end-of-the-world, post-apocalyptic variety.  Sequoia also enjoys the apocalypse, particularly if it includes flesh eating zombies. I don't mind the occasional zombie, but I'm more interested in doomsday scenarios. What happens when the world falls apart? How does it all break down? Then what?  

Religion developed in response to death, the great unknowable. A woman is alive, now she’s dead. How does that happen? Where did she go? What lies on the other side of that divide?  Each religion has its answer. Not only do they have an answer for how we die individually, each religion proselytizes a vision for how the world dies collectively.

The end of the world scenarios that I find so compelling, be they sci-fi or sacred, are just metaphors for my own death.  They help me to cope with reality; "Yeah, maybe I'm gonna die, but the whole world is gonna die, so..."  Death is the inevitable end of the world for each individual, unless something lies beyond. Each major religion each claims to “know” the “truth” of what lies beyond. Whether it’s the Day of Judgment, the Second Coming or an endless cycle of death and rebirth, they claim it as a knowable truth. A fanatic is someone who is so sure he knows what will happen after he dies that he is willing to die for that belief. Ironic, no?

Dunno why I’m thinking such thoughts tonight. Maybe because it has been a good summer but, like all summers, it is coming to an end. Autumn is coming on and I'm glad. The wheel of the year is turning, as it did before I was here, as it will after I am gone.  The end of the world comes for all of us, sooner or later.