My Column from Today's Paper

I’m glad we misinterpreted the Mayan calendar and the world didn’t end on Dec. 21, 2012. 

Hindsight is 20/20 and looking back, maxing out all my credit cards probably wasn’t a good idea. Now that I think of it, I should have flossed my teeth those weeks before the predicted exit date, but alls well that ends well (or doesn’t end, I should say).

I read where people started years ago building safe rooms and stockpiling food. Some people bought guns, ammo and wilderness property so they could build fortresses.

I, on the other hand, took a long nap. Here’s the thing: I’m not sure I’d want to survive a world calamity where I lost all my friends, neighbors and family. 

I watched a movie back in November entitled “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.” It was a sad movie and I’d never watch it again, but it got me to thinking.

What would I do if there was a giant asteroid on a collision course with Earth, and I knew for certain that the world as I know it would be destroyed in three weeks?

There is little doubt my priorities would change. For example, I wouldn’t waste time worrying about work deadlines and planning. I would not bother with our financial planner.

New tires on the truck or painting the barn would no longer be a priority.

In fact, I would forget all the things that I keep transferring from one day to the next on my daily planner. 

I think I would go down a list of the people I love and go see them. I would spend quality time visiting, talking, eating our favorite meals and listening to the music of our lives.

I can tell you, the impending calamity would add a sense of urgency to whatever I decided to do.

The longer I thought about what I would do if the world were ending, the more I wondered why I haven’t done these things all my life. 

I’ve managed to spend time with my loved ones, but too often I didn't visit because things got in my way.

At times I was spending too much time making a living and not enough time making a life.

I think we all are guilty of chasing the dollar to buy new cars, houses, computers, phones and other stuff. 

I’d be the first to say that acquiring things offer a sense of satisfaction, but that heady feeling is usually fleeting. Before you know it, you’re after something else. 

I dare say you could have all the things you ever dreamed of and still not be truly as happy as when you spend quality time with good friends.

I recently reread “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau, and the following quote resonated with me. 

It sums up what I was thinking as I wrote this piece.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”