The Time is at Hand

By investigating “the end” I find myself reflectively focusing as well on “the beginning” (or, if I’m really being honest) “the middle” or less obscurely: the present. Recently, as we continue our creative journey towards the end of the world, considering asteroids, nuclear war, disease, and universal collapse (just to name a few), and meld these external (and obviously fearful) possibilities with our own internal doubts, I am questioning my life as much as my death. In the last moments before death, what is important? Given the knowledge that the earth will explode (say in the next half hour), my mind scrambles- zigzagging from desperate calls to loved ones, to futile dreams of escape, to reflections of my past, to the thought that maybe taking an old bottle of wine and a cigar up to the roof might be the most romantic way to view the destruction. It makes me realize that given such a short span of time it’s hard to address all of our dreams or regrets. Then I had the thought that maybe the last moments before death don’t have a time restraint. Maybe the “moments before death” are happening right now, and encompass our entire lives (past and present)… that simply, the moment before death is life. This outlook reminds me to create, to love, to dream, to relieve my doubts, and to find some joy now, because there may not be a thirty-minute warning before the end (of me, or of everyone). So, if you’re planning an end of the world party (for example), it’s okay to open the doors early. Oh, and tell me where it is.

Matt Lorenz