Not with a bang but a whimper
Not with a Bang but a Whimper
It's the end of the world as we know it.
Oh, it may not be the end of the world as you know it, but for me and a billion other people on the planet it is.
Today my world is irrevocably changed. Something has happened that separates every experience I have ever had from every experience I ever will have. Things will never be the same. The world I now inhabit is not the same as the one I am accustomed to.
What happened?
That doesn't really matter to you. It means the end of the world as I know it, but it doesn't affect you.
Maybe my mother died. Maybe I've just been diagnosed with something terminal or chronic or dibilitating. Maybe I've just lost my whole home in a fire or tornado.
Maybe it's even something good.
Maybe I'm getting married. Maybe I'm having a baby. Maybe I just won the lottery.
Maybe it's none of those things.
But whatever it is that has happened, it has changed my world. It is the end of the world as I know it. And I'm not the only one.
There are six billion people on this planet, and for at least some of them, right now is the end of the world as they know it.
Somewhere in Africa, a mother just buried her baby. There's a lonely kid in Idaho whose beloved dog ran away. A teenage girl in France just had her heart broken for the first time.
There's a young couple in Japan who have been trying for three years to have a baby, and the stick just turned pink. In a high school in the slums of Atlanta a dedicated teacher has helped a troubled student make the decision to turn his life around.
Today may not be remarkable to you, but for these people, and many others, this is the end of the world as we know it.
And you feel fine.