“Apocalyptic” Acceptance

Here’s the thing about most apocalypse movies, they’re all a metaphor for the most extreme unknowns in life.

Zombie movies, there’s death sprinkled with reminders that maybe it’s not truly an end for us, albeit a traumatic way to remind us with flesh and brain eating undead. End of days movies, like “I Am Legend”, “The Book of Eli”, and even “War of the Worlds”, show us how our set routine and plans for life are much more fragile than we ever allow ourselves to believe. Until, that is, something comes along to shake us out of ourselves and wish for a world of “before” so we can have another chance at recognizing truths we understand now, in hindsight.

The devastation of the movies, watching the turmoil brought on by the characters just trying to make the best of their circumstances, is soul crushing. And that’s the point. Especially in today’s readily available technology driven world, it’s all too easy for us to disassociate ourselves with who we are above all: human beings. It’s easier to look at someone from the point of view of being behind a camera than it is to genuinely look someone in the eyes and recognize, our own reflection.

A major plot point in every apocalypse movie is when the main character/characters come to understand their faults in the world before. It’s the point the movie turns around and makes us, in some way or another, connect with the character by remembering a way in which we’ve unintentionally be unappreciative. Even now, after reading that sentence, some of you might be remembering your own misunderstandings.

It feels like a major failure, but what it actually is, is a rebirth. It’s the ignition sequence into better understanding ourselves and the world around us; the world we’ve been thrown into and told to live in a certain way. This is the moment we rise to rebuild; it’s the moment we go to find shelter in an abandoned building, and while we’re removing debris, we find a single flower still thriving in the dirt beneath all the chaos.

It’s hope, simultaneously losing it and finding it. It’s understanding, our fragility as human beings and how strong that makes us as a whole.

It’s this moment right now, our present state of being, where all seems lost yet we continue to fight on in hopes of discovering something better hidden within us all. It seems impossible given our present state of the world, what we’re all going through mentally, physically, and emotionally but we have to remind ourselves and each other, our pains are temporary. We rise anew, stronger, together with more compassion, understanding and truth. For now, we continue to fight on for hope, to search for it even if we can’t understand that’s what we’re doing.

The best thing we can do, is accept the multiple levels of this apocalyptic year so that when the time comes to rebuild, we can do so with truth and understanding for our humanity as the foundation.