The following is a post from my website Chrissy…In Her Sixties, which I am currently working on shutting down. The website you are now looking at, That Hobbit Lady, has been with me since November 2004 (nearly 20 years) and contains over 500 posts. In Her Sixties only goes back to 2017, with less than 40 posts. So, you see…in the interest of consolidating, I could either send 500+ posts from That Hobbit Lady to In Her Sixties, or 30+ posts from In Her Sixties to That Hobbit Lady. In addition to the math of that first option not making much sense, it also happens that the term “In Her Sixties” will only to apply to me for a few more years. But I will be a Hobbit Lady forever. So: no-brainer.
~~~~~~~
November 2, 2017
As a teenager, I traveled from Florida to New York to spend a Summer with my Aunt Barbara. I specifically recall that during that trip, Barbara and I had a conversation in which she explained that the Bible predicted an increase in earthquake activity as a foreshadower of the End Times. (In Matthew 24:7, Jesus said, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.”)
During the last 50 to 100 years, Barbara reported, more earthquake activity had been recorded than in all of recorded history before that time. Since earthquakes were increasing, she contended, surely the End Times were nigh.
Now, of course, it should have occurred to my teenage self to ask the obvious question: could it just be that in the last 50 to 100 years civilization has gotten so much better about recognizing and recording earthquake activity? But I didn’t stop to logically think this out, because my instinct kicked in…and I began to worry.
Now, I’ve always been a Worrier. I lack the gene that makes one able to recall and tell jokes, but my Worrier Gene is strong and dominant. At times it has served me well, because it’s easy for me to imagine the worst that could possibly happen, and I am motivated to prepare for the worst, perhaps moreso than the average person. I believe I have averted many a disaster in this way.
For instance, when my children were little and learning to climb, every morning I would take the couch cushions off the couch and lay them on the floor, so that when the kids climbed the couch, if they fell, they fell into the cushions and did not hurt themselves. I am proud to report we had no juvenile broken bones in our house…until Mary and Joey were about 12 and 13, and went walking around the neighborhood on their own, and Joey stole Mary’s hat, and ran, and she chased him, and tripped over some ornamental rocks and landed hands first on the concrete, fracturing both wrists. She had two casts for several weeks, but thankfully her young bones healed in record time, which was good, because helping her wash her waist-length hair in the sink every few days was not the easiest thing in the world to do.
I relay all this to point out how, with matters that are under my control, my worrying has proved a loyal friend. But in matters that are beyond my control (like the End Times, whether by earthquake, or any other means), I find my worrying has very little influence over events. But I worry all the same.
We now live in a world that is more dangerous than anything I can recall in my lifetime. Not to say that the world has not been more dangerous, only that if it was, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to be consumed with Worry about it. But now I am paying attention, and I do so to my own detriment, because there are things going on in the world that might indeed spell the end of civilization as we know it. What I mean is, we should ALL be worried. And guess what? For the vast majority of us, these things are completely out of our control.
Mostly I’m talking about the current situation with North Korea. This has been on the periphery of my consciousness for many years now, in a way that has made me worry, “Someday this may become a real problem.”
Well, that day is here. In my humble opinion, if this matter is not handled properly, we could all be looking at the large-scale disaster of WWIII. And I’m not the only “worrier” who thinks so.
Actually, here in Alabama, Russ and I are probably unlikely to be a direct target, but Mary lives just outside Seattle, and Joey and the rest of my family live in or near the Fort Lauderdale/Miami metropolis, and either of those locations are high on the risk list. And now we hear that North Korea may have an H-bomb. How much more dangerous does that make them? How much more should we worry?
Nobody wants nuclear war. Duh. But somehow things like this can happen. I don’t know what the likelihood might be (as in, “Alabama has an 87% chance of beating Auburn in the Iron Bowl.”), but I know it’s enough to make not only me, but also lots of other intelligent people take up the mantle of Worry.
Now, here’s the thing: when you’re worrying about nuclear war, everything else tends to shrink in significance. For instance: what’s the use of exercising and eating right to stay healthy and live long, if you’re never going to have a chance to live long, because you’re going to be annihilated in a nuclear explosion? Why am I saving money for retirement, if I’m never going to reach retirement age? Why do I even bother waking up and going to work every day?
Maybe I go to work because I have such a beautiful and comfortable office. Here is a picture of my office:
As you can see, I’ve decorated for Fall, with sunflowers and scarecrows and amber twinkle lights. It took a little time and effort to put this all together. And why did I do it? Why did I bother? Because despite the fact that the world could be destroyed in a nuclear explosion, I believe WE HAVE TO CARRY ON as if everything is normal. If we let the fear of the possibility that the world might come to an end prevent us from living our lives, then in some way, or world already has come to an end.
Forty years later, Barbara’s dire 1970’s prediction that “the end is near” has not yet amounted to anything. In fact, NONE of the dire predictions of any number of sooth-sayers over the last forty years have yet to amount to anything. Kahoutek’s Comet, Y2K, the Mayan Calendar…not to mention how many times the same religious fanatic keeps predicting the end of the world, then saying the math was wrong, but now he’s got it right, so really, this time, for sure, it’s happening, mark my words!
Honestly. Why do we keep listening to this stuff?
But this North Korea business is a little different. It’s not random. It’s not fantasy. There is a clear and present danger. But I’ve decided I have to stop listening to it, have to stop paying so much attention to it. It may happen, it may not. But the world will come to an end at the time that God has pre-ordained. There’s nothing we can do about it. At least, there’s nothing I can do about it, at least not directly.
So I’m trying not to pay undue attention to it, trying not to let it cloud my thinking. I decorate my office for Fall, I go shopping for an outfit to wear for Christmas. I wake up and go to work, cook dinner, wash clothes, do dishes, read books, listen to music. I do jigsaw puzzles, and every now and then write a post for my blog. I try to continue with all the things I need to do and want to do, and try to do it all without thinking about the dark cloud that is hanging over all our heads. And a lot of the time, if I focus on the task before me, I can block out the knowledge of that cloud. At least temporarily. But not all the time.
I know where I’m going when I die. I’m looking forward to meeting Jesus in Heaven. But at the same time…I don’t want to go there too soon. I want to get all I can out of this life before I move on to the next. And I certainly don’t want me, or Russ, or any member of my family, or in fact anyone in the world, to die a horrible death for no apparent good reason. What a waste. What a horrible, stupid waste. That dark cloud of impending doom hangs over my head these days on a constant basis, and all I can do is try very hard not to look up at it.
