Better Late Than Never

"You're fired," said Heather calmly. She stood behind her desk leaning on her hands and staring at the scattered papers that lined the surface. Slowly, she looked up at Tommy, the young messenger who was clearly not understanding that he had just lost his job.

"Wait... what?" Tommy asked, more confused than was usual for him. Heather sighed in frustration. Of course he wouldn't understand why she had just fired him. He spent most of his time being confused by the things going on around him, why would being fired make things any simpler?

"I said that you're fired." She was still trying to maintain her calm, even though her reasons for dismissing the kid were enough to make her incredibly angry. "I'm sorry to do it, Tommy. You're just not cut out for this work."

"Why do you say that?" he asked, still confused but trying to understand.

Heather just looked at him. She wondered if he would ever truly get it, even if she explained in exhaustive detail. She shook her head and said, "I hired you to work for this company as a messenger. That's the only job you have with us. But you're constantly showing up to work late. And when we send you out on a delivery you can never really seem to make your deadlines."

"I didn't realize you were putting me on a time limit!" Tommy said, showing the first signs of anger.

"Tommy, when I interviewed you for this position, I asked you if you understood that some of the things that you would be delivering would be time sensitive. And in that interview, you assured me that you could handle that. You told me that you had no problem being prompt when making deliveries."

Tommy scratched his head and then rubbed his neck. He was at a loss. It wasn't as if he could come up with a good excuse for all of his tardiness. And he certainly couldn't tell his boss the truth about all of the late deliveries. If he told her that, most of the time, he was just on the phone with his friends and goofing off, it wouldn't help his situation in the slightest. "I'm sorry, Mrs. H. I just assumed we had a 'better late than never' policy."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth he knew they were a mistake. Mentally, he kicked himself and tried to prepare for the whirlwind that was to come.

"Better late than never?" Heather's patience had now reached its limit. "Tell me you're kidding!"

"Mrs. Hutchins, please, I'm really sorry. I need this job." Tommy got very quiet. Heather could barely hear him over the sound of her heart beating in her ears.

"What if you were delivering someone's supply of blood pressure medication that they desperately need? What if you were delivering someone's paycheck?" she asked, trying to convey the gravity of what was happening. "Don't you think the people waiting for the things you deliver are important enough to deserve your undivided attention when you're doing your job? The fact that you just said what you did tells me that this isn't important to you. How would you feel if some kid showed up with something that was important to you two or three hours after you were told he would be there?"

"I guess I'd be pretty mad," Tommy said, his voice getting softer as he spoke.

"You guess?" It was all Heather could do to contain her anger. "Get out of here. Your last paycheck will be in the mail. It'll get to you eventually. But hey, better late than never, right?"

With those words, Heather sat down at her desk and went about her own work. She made a conscious effort not to look at Tommy's hang-dog expression as he turned and walked out her office. She didn't want to feel sorry for him. He had made his own bed as far as she was concerned. It was over now. She reminded herself not to think about it, because it only served to anger her all over again. How could he be so flippant about the job that he was being paid to do? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Eventually she would be calm again. Eventually she would be able to hire a new messenger, one who wasn't completely incompetent.

Today's prompt comes from Sunday Scribblings.

The Many Apocalypses of Buffy Summers

Well, the world's still here, 'cause... well... check it out. So to celebrate the averted apocalypse, I thought it fitting to have a marathon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But not an every episode kind of marathon. Just the episodes where Buffy had to save the world from total annihilation. Right then, let's get on with it. There's a lot to cover before the next apocalypse is upon us.

Season 1, Episode 12

Prophecy Girl

"I may be dead, but I'm still pretty." -Buffy Summers

All during that first season, the Master had been desperately trying to get out of his mystical, underground prison. He made several attempts to rise and fulfill his own plan of opening the Hellmouth and destroying the world, but each of those attempts failed. In the end, it took the blood of the Slayer to give him the strength he needed to escape. An ancient prophecy predicted that the Slayer would fight the Master and be killed by him. And that's exactly what happened. The prophecy left out the part where Buffy's friends would show up, perform mouth-to-mouth and save her from drowning. In slasher movies, the good guys tend to make the mistake of not making sure the killer is really dead. Here, the Master makes that same mistake. He leaves Buffy for dead and gets a nasty surprise when he sees her again and she turns him to dust. Apocalypse number one averted.

Season 2, Episode 22

Becoming: Part 2

"Do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is? How dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or... God... even studying! But I have to save the world. Again. - Buffy Summers

So Angel used to be one of the good guys. And then he became one of the bad guys. He comes across this horrible demon that has the ability to suck the world into hell, except it was turned to stone a long time ago. Angel figures out how to reawaken this demon, so Buffy has to stop her ex-boyfriend before the vortex opens. To do this, all she has to do is run a sword through Angelus and into the stone demon. But there's a wrinkle in the end. Willow performs a spell that restores Angel's soul, so he's suddenly one of the good guys again. But it's too late, the demon is waking up and the portal is opening. Buffy is forced to send Angel to hell in order to save the world. Apocalypse number two averted, but with heartbreaking consequences. Try not crying when that Sarah McLachlan song plays while Buffy rides that Greyhound out of town.

Season 3, Episode 13

The Zeppo

"Stay calm... little fender bender. It's not... the end of the world..." - Xander Harris

But Xander, it is the end of the world. Oddly enough, that's not the main story of this episode. Things were kind of backwards for the Scooby Gang this time. The A story here revolved around Xander trying to find his identity and some kind of confidence. In the background we have Buffy and her posse fighting against a group of demons called the Sisterhood of Jhe, an apocalypse cult that exists to bring about the destruction of earth. They very nearly succeed, coming about as close to opening the Hellmouth as the Master did almost two years before. While Xander saves the school from being blown up by a group of undead high school students, Buffy reseals the Hellmouth and averts apocalypse number three.

Season 4, Episode 11

Doomed

Giles - "It's the end of the world."

Buffy, Willow and Xander - "Again?"

Like the previous potential apocalypse in the series, this one sort of takes a back seat to the main story. That being the relationship between Buffy and Riley. Riley's this guy that Buffy has started dating, who happens to be part of a covert government outfit called The Initiative. These guys go around capturing demons so a few government scientists can experiment on them. Riley discovers that Buffy's the Slayer and they sort of have a hard time reconciling all those issues while trying to stop another group of demons from opening the Hellmouth. The good guys get back to the burned down high school, stop the ritual just in the nick of time, and it brings Buffy and Riley a little closer together. Apocalypse number four averted.

Season 5, Episode 22

The Gift

"Dawn, the hardest thing in this world... is to live in it." - Buffy Summers

The fifth season started out a little confusing. Suddenly Buffy had a little sister that none of us had ever seen before. Dawn was really a mystical key that would unlock the barrier separating dimensions and it became Buffy's job to protect her from the Big Bad of the year, Glory. Unfortunately, even though Glory is defeated by the Slayer, one of her servants manages to begin the ritual, meaning that Dawn gets cut and her blood opens the doorway. Unspeakable hell dimensions begin bleeding into reality which wouldn't stop until Dawn's blood stopped, AKA she dies. But Buffy realizes that Dawn was made human using some of herself, and that her own blood would do the trick in closing the portal as well. Buffy sacrifices herself to save the world. Apocalypse number five averted, at the cost of Buffy's life. Again.

Season 6, Episode 22

Grave

"Six years of side man... Now I get to be the Slayer." - Willow Rosenberg

Wait, Willow's the Big Bad? Yes, she is. And let's not spend too much time dissecting how that happened. Let's just say that the sixth year started with Buffy's resurrection and then spiraled into a really big mess. There was a musical, there were nerds... It just wasn't the best year for our heroes. But, as is usual, it culminated in someone deciding that the world would be better off destroyed. So Willow, having a taste of the big evil, makes her way to Kingman's Bluff where she channels some wicked witchy energy into some demonic statue. And then comes Xander to save the day. He doesn't hit her. He doesn't drive a wooden stake into her heart. He just tells her he loves her. He reaches out to his best friend and brings her back to humanity. In saving Willow's soul, he saves the world. And Buffy really had nothing to do with it this time. Apocalypse number six averted.

Season 7, Episode 22

Chosen

"I wanna see how this ends." - Spike

As series finales go, this one was pretty good. The First Evil spent the final televised season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer preparing to start a war against humanity. It was ready to tip the scales, tired of the balance between good and evil. This all culminated with the opening of the Hellmouth. Again. This time, the opening would involve an army of super vampires that would spill out wiping out everything in their path. Buffy makes a preemptive strike. She and her army of potential Slayers march into the Hellmouth to take the fight to the First. Meanwhile, Willow performs a spell using a magical, ancient Slayer weapon. This spell makes every potential Slayer into a full-fledged Slayer. And suddenly there isn't just a chosen one (or two, since we still count Faith), there are a chosen many. The tide turns in the battle against the First Evil, but really it isn't Buffy that saves the world this time. Spike's mystical amulet combined with the power of his recently regained soul destroys the Hellmouth, and Sunnydale with it. In the end, Buffy and the surviving Scooby Gang stand at the edge of an enormous crater to survey the damage. Buffy smiles as she thinks about the possibilities of what comes next.

Now, other Buffy fanatics may look at my list and claim it's incomplete. What about the Mayor's ascension on Graduation Day? What about Adam, the demon/human/cyborg hybrid that the government created deep inside The Initiative? Don't they rank an apocalyptic battle? Yeah, I don't count those as truly end of the world scenarios. The mayor turned into a giant snake. I'm sure he would have completely decimated Sunnydale in is rise to demonic power. But I just don't think he had global destruction on his mind. And Adam? Pretty sure if Buffy hadn't stopped him, the government would have found a way to step in and end things. Again, probably would have eventually ended with Sunnydale being wiped off the map, but not a worldwide catastrophe.

But I'm not perfect. My memory, while it may be pretty decent when it comes to all things pop culture, is not what it once was. So if you think I've missed anything, let me know. But just bear in mind that, in the fictional universe that Joss Whedon created, Buffy the Vampire Slayer saved the world. A lot.

One Hitter

Sequel to the video/commercial I posted a few weeks ago over here. I don't think this is as funny as that first one, but still, it's nice to keep a rivalry going...

Question of the Week: Organization

Do you consider yourself well organized? How often do you have to look for your keys?

I consider myself to be very well organized. I can't remember the last time I misplaced my keys. It just doesn't happen. I'm not sure that has anything to do with my organizational skills though. I just always put my keys in the same place whenever I get home. Right there on the coffee table, along with the wallet and the cellular phone. Nothing like getting a general yes or no question...

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.

AFI 83 - Titanic

This movie sat at the top of my Netflix queue for a month before I realized they were never going to send it to me. "Very Long Wait" was all they would tell me. What, do they only have one copy? Is it still that popular 14 years later? Luckily, my mother happens to own this DVD, so I got her to mail it to me just so I could watch it. So, thanks Mom! And if anyone out there has a copy of Ben-Hur that they'd like to let me borrow, it would get me up to date on this whole AFI list. Thus far, anyway.

Titanic

1997

Directed by James Cameron

Netflix sleeve: Winner of 11 Oscars, James Cameron's effects-driven blockbuster puts a human face on a tragedy of epic proportions by wedding the historical tale of the doomed ocean liner with a fictional romance between two of the ship's ill-fated passengers. Society girl Rose Dewitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and penniless artist Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) struggle to survive both the sinking ship--and the wrath of Rose's wealthy fiance (Billy Zane).

And good Lord I forgot how very long this movie was. I mean... holy crap... It's exhausting just watching it. And what the heck was that old version of Rose thinking? Why would you throw that diamond into the ocean? Why didn't you hock that thing during the Depression? Stupid. You know, this movie's never really done much for me. I remember so many people making such a huge deal about it back when it was first released. I couldn't understand it then and I don't understand it now. It's not that I think it's a bad movie. I think it's all right. I just don't think it's great or life-altering. And I've never understood the point of Kate Winslet's nude scene. Not that I'm trying to be a prude or anything, I just don't get what it has to do with the story. I mean, is it just an incredible show of trust on Rose's part? Anyway, I thought that watching the whole thing again after a decade has passed, I may have gained a better appreciation for Titanic. Didn't happen. Maybe I'll like it better in another ten years. Doubtful.

Legends of the Bank Teller - Episode XCIX

A couple months ago, we began to notice some strange things appearing in a small space behind our branch. There's an enclosed area that houses our air conditioning unit. Really, that's not the strange part. In fact, that's fairly normal. The strange things that appeared there were some empty boxes and some cases of beer.

From this we assumed that we had a homeless person or persons living in that space. This person never spent any daylight hours back there. For a long time, we never saw anyone. We only saw what he or she would leave behind.

That changed a few weeks ago when I started noticing a man walking back and forth behind the building. Normally I wouldn't think anything of this. While there isn't a sidewalk or a real street directly behind us, there are connections to adjacent parking lots. People do use that back driveway as a short cut from time to time. But it's rare to see the same person more than once a day almost every day of the week.

One day I saw this man walk behind some of the bushes that line the back of our property. These bushes and the brick wall behind them are what separate us from a residential neighborhood. When the man emerged from those bushes, he was wearing a different shirt than he had worn going in. The guy changed clothes.

I let the manager know that someone was obviously keeping things behind those bushes and not just next to our air conditioner. Eventually, the homeowners behind us began complaining about trash that had somehow migrated over the wall into their property. At that point it was decided that something had to be done about our resident nomad.

The police were called in to investigate and the homeless man happened to walk up just as the police were searching the bushes for his belongings. From my spot at the drive-thru, I was able to see the entire confrontation. However, there was no real confrontation. Everyone remained calm. Everything was resolved peacefully, though Ryan and I secretly hoped things would get out of hand and someone would have to be tasered.

In the end, all it took was someone from the bank telling the man that he wouldn't be able to stay here anymore. After that, if he came back, the police would have no choice but to arrest him for trespassing. Ryan had the unenviable job of giving the guy the bad news. He came back in after talking to him and said he felt horrible about it.

So we're really not sure who this man was or where he ended up going next. Hopefully he's okay and will get on his feet soon.

The Dead Zone

Title: The Dead Zone
Author: Stephen King
Published: 1979

I have an issue with a quote on the back of my paperback copy of this book. Apparently, someone from Cosmopolitan called this book "truly frightening... will scare you witless!"

Now, in a lot of Stephen King's stuff, I'll give that to him. I got scared reading The Stand. I was a little scared reading The Shining. 'Salem's Lot kind of got to me too. But The Dead Zone absolutely did not terrify me in the slightest.

This isn't to say that The Dead Zone wasn't a good book. I thought it was very good. It just wasn't scary to me. I just found it to be a dramatic tale about a guy who just happened to have the ability to see into people's lives by shaking their hands.

I'm sure some of the imagery was meant to be more frightening than I interpreted it. Maybe I'm desensitized to what some people consider frightening. I have seen a lot of scary movies. And I've seen the film version of this novel. I've started watching the TV show. I'm almost through the first season of it thanks to Netflix, but I'm not entirely convinced that I should keep watching beyond that.

The book itself was good. Not my favorite of King's work, but not his worst either. On the one hand, it seems like it'd be pretty cool to have the power to see into someone's future or past by touching them or touching an object with which they came in contact. At the same time, King clearly described Johnny Smith's turmoil of having this ability. By the end of the book, it's obvious that Johnny and those closest to him consider his ESP to be a curse.

His psychic ability didn't bring him fame and fortune. It only brought him pain and suffering. It wasn't something that Johnny ever asked for, but he got it. And he used it for good as best he knew how. It's easy to wish for an ability and think of all the good you could do with it, whether it be for others or yourself. But King reminds us that there can sometiems be a very negative aspect to how we use our talents.

Lack of Scribblings

I've been slacking lately. Any of my regular readers have probably noticed that I haven't been participating in Sunday Scribblings for the last few weeks. Maybe you haven't noticed. Maybe you don't care. But I'd like to believe that you care. I'd also like to believe that you enjoy my efforts in fiction that I've posted on Sundays past. But just because I'd like to believe it doesn't necessarily make it true. I mean, I'd like to believe I don't need to work in order to earn money, but when will that ever happen?

But I don't want to be a slacker anymore. I don't want to keep being lazy when it comes to making up posts to fit the Sunday Scribblings prompts that show up in my Google Reader every week. And that's all it's come down to over the last few weeks. I've been lazy.

I've seen the prompts that have popped up and I've basically ignored them. I've still managed to post something all the other days of the week, but I've let Sundays slide off the calendar. Well, no more!

I've vowed and promised a number of times in the past that I would post something to the blog every single day. I do well for a while... sometimes for a long while... and then I slack off and start missing days here and there. And here I go, making that "every day" promise again.

I can't promise a new post every day. I'm human. I'll get tired. I'll get lazy. I'll have days when I'm not feeling especially creative. Those days are inevitable. After all, there are only so many subjects to cover when you write about stuff on a daily basis. And, honestly, I don't think my life is all that interesting. But I'll try.

And I'm gonna try to be better about reading other contributors to the Sunday Scribblings. Over at that site, there are dozens of other writers that share links to their blogs. In the past I've sporadically visited these other writers, but I don't usually get involved or leave comments. I suppose it isn't fair for me to hope to have lots of visitors to my blog when I'm unwilling to do the same for theirs. So that's another thing I'm gonna try to do.

I make no promises. And I know that Yoda says there is no try, only do or do not. But I can't say I'll do all the time, because life will inevitably get in the way. But until it does, here I am. Trying.

Leaving Smallville

It's probably not a good idea to sit down to write out my thoughts on the Smallville series finale just yet. I'm still geeking out over the whole thing. A lot, actually.

Here's the thing... I had to work last night. So I missed seeing it during it's first run showing on the CW. The only positive to all of that is I missed the commercials. I know how I get when I'm watching something I'm excited about seeing. I gasp when the commercials begin, even though I know they're coming. And then I grow incredibly impatient for the ads to be over, just so I can see what happens next.

In the past, when I've had to work and have been forced to miss a new episode of Smallville, I would typically jump on the Playstation Network and purchase the latest episode so I could still see it on my awesome HD television. But, in case you weren't aware, the Playstation Network is down. Like, way down. Been down for about a month. So in the last few weeks I've had to wait until the CW decided to upload the newest episodes online to watch for free.

But I hate waiting. And I hate getting five minutes into a show only to have it freeze because it has to buffer. What the heck does that mean, anyway? Buffering? Anyway, I didn't want to do that. So I decided to compromise. I couldn't buy it from the Playstation to watch on the big screen and I didn't want to wait until Wednesday to watch it on the internet, so I went to iTunes and bought it that way. I still downloaded it in high definition, but it was for a smaller screen. But the quality was not diminished.

That sure seems like a lot of back story to simply share how awesome I thought this series finale was. But after 10 years of waiting for Clark Kent to put on that red cape and take off into the sky, that need for a lot of back story kind of describes Smallville in a nutshell.

The show has had a lot of ups and downs. And I've been on that particular roller coaster since its beginning a decade ago. At its start, Smallville just seemed like another "freak of the week" kind of show, riding the coattails of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer only using the Superman mythos as its backdrop. As the years progressed, the show gained more of an undercurrent. It wasn't just about what bad guy would pop up each week and how Clark Kent would eventually take them down, despite being exposed to kryptonite at least twice per episode. As Clark Kent grew up, so did the series, and we saw more and more how this character was being shaped into the super-hero he was destined to become.

Now, I'll admit, around season 7 or 8, I began to have my doubts. A lot of them. How would this guy not be recognized as Superman once he finally put on the tights? Clark Kent has never worn glasses. His face would be easily recognized, especially by his worst enemy, Lex Luthor, who used to be one of his closest friends. And how was it that, even though he was well into his 20s by this point, he still hadn't learned to fly? His cousin showed up in the seventh year and could fly in her first appearance. The balance seemed a little off. But I stuck with it. And the payoff came in last night's finale.

Everything from this season and the last 10 years was wrapped up in a pretty decent little package. The big bad this year was a comic book character known as Darkseid. He was treated a little differently here, as most of the other comic book translations have been. Instead of being a physical being, Darkseid was portrayed as more of a spiritual darkness that had infected humanity. How do you stop that sort of enemy? By inspiring the people of the world with unshakable hope. Which is exactly what Superman is meant to be, a symbol of hope.

In this final episode, Clark Kent learned to embrace his destiny. He learned to embrace his past, not only as a farm boy from Kansas, but as the Last Son of Krypton as well. For years he's thought that he needed to walk away from his past in order to become the hero that the world needed, but he finally realized that both sides of his heritage are important to the man that would be Superman.

The next paragraph will have the spoilers. But really, it shouldn't be a spoiler because if you've ever liked Smallville for even a little while, you should have been expecting all of the things that made up this ending.

I mentioned that the finale was an incredible payoff. Clark Kent and Lois Lane end up together, as it should be. Lex Luthor returned from death, after supposedly being killed off in season 8. Clark Kent/Kal-El received the blessing to be Superman from both his biological father, Jor-El, and the man that raised him in Smallville, Jonathan Kent. Clark finally learned how to fly. And he finally put on the suit. He saved Air Force One... again... He saved the world... again...

Oh, and that whole thing where Lex would easily recognize that Clark Kent and Superman were one and the same? They fixed that. I mean, it was a little far-fetched, sure, but at least they saw the need to write their way out of it. When Lex killed one of Clark's allies (who also happened to be Lex's half-sister), she infected him with some kind of neuro-toxin that basically erased his memories. Now that I think about it, it's kind of a pity. I think it might be interesting to have a story where Lex Luthor knows that Superman is Clark Kent, but keeps that information to himself. I don't think Luthor would want to advertise that kind of knowledge. If more people know about a secret, it cheapens it for the few that already know it.

So watching the Smallville finale was incredibly bittersweet. Part of me is glad that it's finally over after all these years. That's the part of me that applauded at the end of the show when Clark ran out on the roof of the Daily Planet building and tore his shirt open to reveal the classic S shield. The other part of me would kind of like to see it go on and on. I do think it would have been interesting to see what kind of Superman Tom Welling would have played. But I accept that it's over. They told the story that they set out to tell. The creators' mission was to spin the tale of Clark Kent's journey to becoming a hero and Lex Luthor's journey to becoming a villain. After 10 years, they succeeded very well.

And I Feel Fine

There's a lot of talk about the end of days being upon us. We're coming up on 2012, the year that the Mayan calendar comes to an end. There are some people out there who think that once December 21 hits that year, our number is pretty much up. Personally, I think 12/21/2012 is just going to be another first day of winter and the world's just gonna keep on spinnin'. If you want to go back and read my historically accurate account of how the Mayan calendar came to be, click here. It's a pretty decent read if I do say so myself.

But lets leave the Mayan folks out of this for now. I mean, that's a whole year and a half away before we wake up and discover that the world's still here. We have more pressing matters that are pressing upon us. There are some who believe that we don't have 'til next December. There are those who believe we only have until next week.

Recently, driving around town, I've noticed a car that advertises a website: wecanknow.com. But the ad on the car isn't as vague as just throwing a web address at you and then driving away. There's a picture of a day planner opened to May 21, 2011, with the date circled in red. The car wants you to know that the guy driving it believes that Jesus is coming back on that very day.

Honestly, I find this a little intriguing. I don't believe it as fact, but I'm intrigued just the same. I was raised believing that no one would know the time of Christ's return. It's what I was taught in my 5th grade Sunday School class. It's what I was taught in college when I took a course that spent an entire semester studying the book of Revelation. It's what I learned from reading 1 Thesselonians 5:2, "For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." It's what I've believed my entire life. And that really hasn't changed.

A few weeks ago, when I first saw the car, I misread it. I thought the date read as March 21. As I was following the car I couldn't help but think, "Man, they sure missed that one..." Mostly because at this point, it was already April. But then at a stop light I got a closer look. I realized the prediction was for May 21. That didn't really make me feel any better.

I mean, if they'd been right, and it had been March 21, then where was I? What'd I miss? For that matter, why were they still driving that car around since it was so outdated? But if they're right about May 21, that's kind of short notice, isn't it? You'd think if someone pinpointed the date of the second coming that it would be national news. But I was curious.

I didn't run right home and jump on their website, just to see what it was all about. In fact, I sort of forgot about it by the time I got home. Then I saw the car again a couple weeks later. At that point I decided I'd take a look. I didn't read everything in depth, but just took a quick glance at some of what this organization had to say.

The founders of the website follow the teachings of a guy named Harold Camping. Oddly enough, Mr. Camping predicted the rapture would occur back in September of 1994. Didn't happen. Kind of makes me question the validity of his current prediction.

I'm sure if I were read the website in depth and let the words reach a comprehensive level, I'd find some pretty compelling arguments. Anyone who knows enough about what they're talking about can make a compelling argument. My Dad was the kind of guy who loved to play devil's advocate in a Sunday School classroom. He would sit quietly for a while and listen while the other men would take one point of scripture and come to an agreement about what it meant. Then he would speak up and somehow convince them that it meant something completely different. After convincing a room full of grown men that he was right and they were wrong, he would turn to the leader and ask, "John, would you like me to tell them why I'm wrong?" John would just look at him and laugh, "I wish you would."

God has given us the ability to access His Word. We have the responsibility to read what scripture has to say and to interpret it the way the Holy Spirit would guide us. Maybe that's how Harold Camping feels he's been led in his interpretation of scripture that has led him to predict Christ's return not once, but twice. But, as with anyone who preaches the Word, it's important that the hearers take the time to comprehend what has been preached. It is vitally important for people to not just accept what is preached at face value.

This is how things were centuries ago, before the Bible was readily accessible to the average church goer. Back then, people were ignorant of what God's Word really had to say to them. They simply accepted the Latin words that their priests gave to them. It's this kind of behavior that led to the Crusades and to corruption in the medieval church.

I'm not saying that Camping is right or wrong. I assume we'll find out one way or the other next Saturday. Personally, I'm not gonna hold my breath. And whether Christ's return can be predicted or not, I don't think I'd want to know anyway. Another one of those things I've always believed is that, as a Christian, I should be prepared for Christ's return any day. I know I fail at that all the time. But the point I draw from that verse in 1 Thessalonians is that there's no way to know when His return will occur. It could be today; it could be a hundred years from now.

People have been predicting the end of days since before Christ's birth. I guess, for some reason, human beings are just obsessed with looking to the future. We can't seem to just be happy with where we are today.

I didn't intend to get preachy, and I hope you don't see it that way. And remember, I am a seminary drop out. But if you've read this far, I'm interested to know what you think. Do you think there's a chance Camping has it right? Is this the end of the world as we know it? Do you think the Mayans are right? Does it really matter to you when the end will come? Or are you more focused on where you are today?