End times. How many
sects have come and gone predicting the imminent end times? We are still living with the writings of
Jesus’ followers that predict the end times in apocalyptic color. You must watch for the master will come in the
night and take one but not the other. How many sects have come and gone with
their warnings of the fire, judgment or alien landing around the corner? They wipe themselves out when their fervor
does not come to fruition as they believed.
Sometimes they wipe themselves out in anticipation.
Los Angeles in the 21st century is obsessed with
The Big One; a modern day doomsday fantasy with science as the new
gospel backing the obsession. When the
5.1 hit while LAMC was on stage last Saturday, I fully confess to letting my
own personal quake fantasies go nuts. While
I did my best to keep my eyes on Dutoit – the choral benches
rolling beneath us – I imagined what else might be going on. I did not remain fully present in the
performance. The audience’s noises were
bigger than the rolling and some did leave, though we did not stop. I also remember thinking that I would rather
be there at the concert hall than almost anywhere else. It is a big modern building, only 10 years
old, where everything would have had to have been designed and constructed with
earthquakes in mind. Even the big façade
pipes on the organ are designed to move rather than break in a quake.
So, yes, it was cool.
I secretly congratulated myself on having the luck to have been on this
call to be able to have such an experience to add to my trove of
personal stories. Even though they too
shall fade, my stories are one of my largest collections of earthly riches,
things I stock up on and accumulate, like too many dresses or sweaters, to the neglect
of other more important matters.
When I got to my car, I was silently thankful that nothing
more had happened than what did. My car
was still there, unharmed and ready to take me home to a wonderful boyfriend
and two colorful quadrupeds. Life in Los
Angeles continues as it has pretty much uninterrupted since the white man first
came. I may take more seriously, though,
the call to prepare and fill a few water bottles to store in the back of a
closet, just in case.
