Yellow Wind

There is an old mountain saying that goes like this: "Nothing in this world is too bad to happen." We are indeed in "one mell of a hess" as another old saying goes. But people of the light are not afraid "even if the world blows up, and the mountains crumble into the sea" (Psalm 46:2).

Canadian Forum journalist Brian Murphy and his teenage son were idly conversing over breakfast one morning. At one point the boy challenged his father's urgings that he do well in school by cynically remarking that his grades didn't matter because "... after all, we will all be dead soon anyway." Murphy retorted: "What makes you so important, that after all these eons of time, and billions of people, you get to be one of the special ones to be here at The End of the World? You may be that special, I suppose, but I would develop a plan B if I were you." To this philosophical observation the son simply grinned and replied, "You're weird, Dad." (Utne Reader May/June 1991:113)

This brief father/son conversation demonstrates a number of the fears and foibles that populate apocalyptic thought. For some the whole literature and tradition of "end times" is part of such an ancient and obscure mythology that it has virtually no relevance for our postmodern lives and lifestyles.

Then there are ...