Revolution Evolution

Have you ever...

pictured Armageddon? The events that would lead up to it. Speculation. News stations going ballistic. Theories. Concepts.

And then, Resolution. Certainty. Knowing that the inevitable is now hours ... minutes away.

Everything would come into perspective.

First, chaos. Then acceptance. The sine curves of reality. There'd be mass looting and shooting. Frustration would heighten to high heavens. And then, attitudes would placate. The vision of eternal nothingness will finally sink in.

The media would cease to air. Turn on the TV to a blank screen, or a logo shot saying "Be brave!".

Nowhere to turn to. All the petty fights, the squabbles, the ego hassles - everything diminishing into minimal nothingness. Items of immense value that your life revolved around, things you saved up for, for years, now become mere obstructions as you try to run outside.

Run where? Run how far? Run to whom? You're all in the same boat. As if the world's the Titanic.

Fear would merge into vengeance and loathing for one's destiny. Reversals of belief, as atheists will double-click on "Pick a religion, any religion" - as if its their last hope - in an attempt to quickly salvage the remnant drops of salvation from a dripping drought-ridden tap. There'd be longer lines outside the churches of Manhattan - than there ever were outside any club on any given Saturday Night. There'd be bouts of deja vu. You would hang on to those thoughts for dear life, like a distraught branch in the flood of circumstance, because you wouldn't know where they would all disappear to, soon. Those memories. Where would they all go? Those emotions. Where will they all settle, when its ALL gone? The feel of being home, the scent of the first rain, the comfort of your mother's care, your first crush, that first kiss. Would it all be stored in some giga-tera-byte archival hard drive in the universal CPU? Puns wouldn't be as funny anymore, as the clock ticks by. A sense of humor wouldn't be appreciated as much. Subway shelters would crowd like Black Holes of Calcutta. Hiding from what? Hiding from WHAT?

Those last few things on your mind before you 'knew', would lose their inherent value. Their very existence would make you cringe. The 3 million dollar deal you just closed. The 10 pounds you need to lose. Your life savings - and the fact that you can't take it with you. Each thought would be a stark and painful reminder of the gifted present, and the soon-to-be the ever-distant past. The past? That's what it will be now, won't it. The forgotten past.

The class system would fall apart like a pack of cards, as Maugham's words would hold true. kings would dine with paupers. CEOs with doormen. Celebrities would walk the streets without bodyguards and entourages, amongst mere mortals, and still no one would care. People would begin to do their last few acts of goodwill - free food, clothing, heat, advice, preaching - as they try to speedwash their years of sin away, and book their suites in heaven. Heaven? a make-believe paradise of white gowns and clouds that we have created in our heads.

People would try to do all those things that they said they would do when they had one day to live, but memory would fail them. Where's Outlook when you need it.

Your internal quarrels with faith, and your unwanted acceptance of fate. The misery of it all.

Faith. Fate. So similar, yet so different.

The horizon now seems like a mirage.

As the minutes dissolve into seconds...

Eyes will shut tight.

Your thoughts will distance as strangers to your psyche.

Childhood memories will bid you goodbye, in slow motion.

Emotions would surface. Subside. Then re-surface.

Reluctant tears will well up.

Embraces would give last-minute strength.

Teeth will be grit, faces will flinch in terror of the unknown.

Foreign, unknown hands would enclasp each other.

And then a voice would say...



"Tanqueray on the rocks - splash of tonic? Here you go, sir".

The curious thoughts that one has while waiting for a drink.

Salute.