I don’t know of course when the End will come. For some time, probably since the beginning of human life, it’s been a big question though. For living creatures, we usually know of their life span. Humans average 70 to 80 years, some living well into a century. There are some trees about 6,000 years or more. Some wild Elephants make it into their 8th decade, maybe longer. The Glass Sponge, might be the oldest living creature, between 10,000 and 15,000 years old. Whoa! That’s a lot of sponging.
For those of us walking around on two legs and speaking heady thoughts, living some 80 years or so is quite an accomplishment. That feeling that we are nearer to the end of our lives than we are the beginning is powerful still. The older we are, the more likely we are to think about the End. Now their are several kinds of End.
The End of life, the end of earth systems, the end of the sun, the end of earth, the end of certain species, even humans and so forth. We often add the term Apocalyptic to these endings. When we start worrying about our lives or other lives, we start using the Apocalyptic language. We grow ill at ease, even frenetic in trying to prepare for it, usually when it is too late.
We are under some kind of Solar Storm watch as I type this. I’ve heard it suggested that there is a ten percent chance of damage to our technology and power systems this Mother’s Day weekend. NOAA suggests that this storm has immense power and could change life as we know it. A scary scenario is afoot.
We have billions of cells in each of our bodies that die each day. Another Whoa! wouldn’t you say? That is a lot of dying, on a micro/nano scale of course. Hopefully we don’t have a lot of macro death in the next few days. We already have too much of that. Anyhow, Buckle up, just to be on the safe side.