The End of the World as we know it...and GenX feels fine...

So, we're days away from the "End of the World."  Again.

Or so the internet keeps telling me.  Government officials, due to a rash of frightened emails and letters, have responded that the world is not going to end in a few days.

Which means I still have to go take final exams.  *sigh*  You would think if we were scheduling an apocalypse that far in advance, someone would have ensured they did it before finals week.  I mean, who wants to admit they spent their last days cramming?

Not this kid.

I would rather say I spent my last days with my children.  On a beach. In the sun. 

(Who worries about sun damage to the skin when the end is nigh?  Not this kid.)

But I've noticed that we're having the End of the World more frequently.  I mean, back in the day, you only had the end of the world once a generation or so.  This is what?  Our second AT LEAST.  I mean, we partied like it was 1999.  We faced the Y2K bug.  We've done this and none of us got a teeshirt.

Well, I didn't get a teeshirt.  Maybe you did. 

I guess the question this creates for me is...why is our generation so prone to believing the end is coming?  Why are we waiting for fire to rain from the sky and zombies to steal our twinkies?

*moment of silence for the twinkies*

I think it's because, at the end of the day, the end of the world is easier to think about than endless Thursdays.  If we view our lives as continuing on, just as they are, for the rest of our lives and ending in a nursing home, our generation has to deal with the fact we're getting older.

Generation X is becoming Generation somewhat wrinkled.  We've gone from being the trend setters to borderline bed wetters.  It's scary stuff.

Easier, then, to consider how we would cope with a zombie apocalypse or an ending Mayan calendar than how we'll deal with facing the middle aged faces that stare back at us in the mirror.

Don't Panic...

Earthquakes rattling everywhere from Canada to the somewhat expected California have blasted through the news this week.

Hurricane Irene is blasting up the East coast, threatening big cities like New York and Boston.

Solar flares are pummeling the earth as the sun goes through her version of her monthly...

Mass animal deaths have caused end times fears to spread across the net and send biblical fears into the hearts of many...

2012 enthusiasts fear the end of the Mayan calender... which sparked a movie starring the hunkylicious John Cusack which is something that really gets my attention (So did Must Love Dogs, to be honest. He is yummmmmy)

So what does all this mean to all of us? Is the end upon us? And if so ... do you have your towel?

For those of you who don't know why you have a towel (tisk tisk) here is an excerpt from the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...(Which "itself has outsold the Encyclopedia Galactica because it is slightly cheaper, and because it has the words "DON'T PANIC" in large, friendly letters on the cover.)

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Get your towel here, emblazoned with the friendly words "Don't Panic." Thanks to my pals over at ThinkGeek for continuing to offer some of the coolest stuff around.

And other than that... Well, who needs more than a towel?