A note for the end of the world

Some days it feels like the Earth could spin off its axis.

Science tells us that’s not possible. But it still feels like it could happen. That one day while we’re spinning, spinning, spinning, our little globe just pops off, barreling out into the distance, towards another corner of the universe.

Falling.

Once we’re off the axis, it’ll feel like our planet will just keep falling, falling. Because even though we’re still orbiting the sun, that’s how it feels right now. It feels like we’re hurtling towards a bottomless future. We will never hit the bottom, we tell ourselves, because it can only get worse.

The world as you knew it no longer exists. You probably remember a rosey version of what once was. And while you can’t put your finger on what exactly was better back then you know that the Right Now isn’t good. Things are bad. People are bad. The world is bad.

Bad, bad, bad.

You have those moments in which you wonder what’s the point? You throw your hands up. You spit your gum out on the sidewalk. You cross the street without looking. When you leave the office, you don’t bother to hold the door. Because, shit, you’ve held up your end of the bargain this whole time. You paid your taxes. You remembered to call grandpa on his birthday. You never cheated on a test. (OK, just that one time in Latin.) So why, then, does the world feel like it could go at any moment? It could burst at any moment and there’s nothing you can do.

Tuesday, a man named Alton Sterling was shot dead for no good reason. We didn’t have time to fully mourn him before another man named Philando Castile had the same fate. Terrorist attacks in Iraq and Bangladesh and Istanbul murdered scores of people in the past week alone. Orlando LGBT club-goers were mowed down in their safe-haven. An American presidential candidate is defending anti-Semites and encouraging white supremacy. It’s a wonder the world even has the strength to keep chasing its tail.

Remember: It can always get worse. Remember: We can also make it better. Even just a little bit.

How?

Here’s one: Smile at a stranger. I don’t care if it makes you look fucking insane. Press your teeth together, peel back your lips, and point the corners of your mouth towards heaven. Smile like you mean it. Try to tell this stranger that even though you’re not sure this world will even be here tomorrow, you want them to remember some semblance of happiness. You want them to feel it in their bones. You want to make sure this joy, wherever you’re sourcing it, is absorbed by every inch of their skin. It’s easy. It’s free.

Tell someone you love them. Someone you’ve never told before. Let this person know that if, as the signs indicate, civilization as we know it will soon be gone, that you’ll miss them. That they add to your life. That they are a good part of this shriveling world. They may not say it back. In fact, they probably won’t. But just know they loved to hear that you love them.

The fact is that The Bad has always existed, the hurt simply shifts shape, and our world is just as precarious today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. But we feel this ache so deep in our human hearts because our bodies will never be able to accept the worst as the norm. We will always yearn for better. For safety. For peace. We will always want these things, even though intellectually we understand that they may always be just out of reach.

Maybe the world will never be fair. Maybe the color of your skin or the place you worship or the extra weight you carry or your lack of education will always put you at a disadvantage. But please do not believe that it can never be better. I beg of you.

You can scream. You can cry, and you can ask whatever god or object you worship why things suck so bad and why people have to die and why children are starving and buildings are crumbling and the icecaps are melting. But you can’t believe, even in moments of abject hopelessness, that there is no hope. Because I need you. We all need you.

It may never be good. But it can be better.

Image via Nigel Howe/Flickr CC BY 2.0