I have been told that although we narrowly escaped 12-21, the world is still going to end. I’m sorry to hear that.

It seems to me it could have stood to go on a little longer.

After all it wasn’t around very long

cosmically speaking

and we barely got here.

One could argue things were just getting interesting.

Although when I think about the many millions of years that dinosaurs used to roam the earth

I can’t help but wonder if we are just the disappointing sequel

that is being cancelled half-way through its second season

cosmically speaking.

It was a good world.

As far as I can remember.

It had many things to see

most of which I didn’t

but a fair number of which I dare say I did

I was always partial to the sunsets.

Daylight was pulled back like a blanket and before night rolled in like fog for just a brief fleeting moment we saw the world as it truly was —

colorful

dynamic

special

and exceptionally well lit.

beyond all want or need or satisfaction

It was fleeting

so many things were

but I always enjoyed that a little bit.

That tinge of regret as a flash of beauty fades.

Life was full of these odd, artisan little moments

hand-carved with care and then set somewhere

it was almost certain they would be overlooked

I used to like feeling sad sometimes

it was such a funny little emotion

I would watch it spin and settle inside me like dust particles in a ray of light.

How strange to feel empty and full at the same time.

A nice touch.

I’m glad the world was full of humans.

Though it sometimes seemed hard to decide if we were the greatest creation of nature or just the most unfortunate.

We were irrational and needy and ever ever grasping but we loved things and cherished them and wept when we discovered they could not last forever.

We saw, we perceived, we had questions, we sought answers, from the bottom of the ocean to the farthest reaches of space.

We built homes, cured diseases, bombed towns and murdered millions.

Given the oncoming apocalypse, I’m willing to call it a draw.

And so now the world is ending.

So be it.

I was fortunate enough to be born.

I have lived.

I have explored.

I have eaten a variety of fish.

I had many aspirations, and was able to see several fulfilled.

I had opinions and ideas and was able to voice them with mixed results.

I have achieved human flight, travelled many places and met many people, and have not yet been stabbed.

I have been rewarded in excess of my accomplishments and I have been loved beyond my worth.

I have seen the Hobbit.

And so now the world is ending.

So be it.

My children will never enter this world.

They will never know pain.

They will never know hunger.

They will never watch a loved one suffer and feel powerless to help.

They will not have to see the last of the earth’s vitality siphoned off and burned for heat by greedy men with short sights and long pockets.

They will not taste racism, homophobia, or any of the other blind hatreds we have as a species nurtured like flasks tucked in our coat pockets.

They will never know consciousness, a condition that is apparently so awful that a large number of my friends spend the majority of their free time trying to alter or flee it.

They will never look into oncoming traffic and shudder to feel how softly death’s words can caress an ear.

The will never stub their toe

They will never be born.

They will never know me, but I have known me for quite a while now and have never found it a particularly interesting pastime, so I’m willing to consider that loss acceptable.

Who wants to know a soul less self?

A simple girl, just biding her time.

So involved, but obviously withdrawn with her sad eyes.

And so now the world is ending.

Well, for everyone else.

Mine ended long ago.

The world will end.

So be it.