I just wanted to send you a cheerful reminder that the world is going to end soon. If not in the way that has George W. Bush getting raptured up to heaven,* it’ll be through systemic environmental collapse or the global chaos that ensues when we run out of oil in a few years. I suspect this is inevitable . . . there are no alternatives in place anywhere that will allow us to reverse course in time.

I heard this on NPR yesterday.

But what I really wanted to tell you is this:

It doesn’t matter.

Well, of course it matters . . . but another thing I experienced yesterday was a graffito painted on the curb of an alleyway next to my house. It contains just three words that, together, are three of the most compelling words in the English language, illuminating a truth of which I desperately needed reminding:

YOU ARE ALIVE.

Isn’t that fabulous? We may all be dead tomorrow, but anyone reading this is (most likely) alive today.

Yes, obviously we should do everything we can to save the world and to make it a better place. Doing this in ways that are unique to our abilities and interests is part of living life to the fullest.

And doing this no matter what, even in the face of its almost certain futility, is what it means to be alive.

Update: Because I wrote this late at night, it is perhaps not as clear as I intended. I am not really suggesting that it doesn't matter if the world ends, only that this distinct possibility shouldn't steal our lives prematurely. Or maybe I had too much wine before sitting down at the computer.

* Leaving us sinners—whose arrogance and greed didn’t kill hundreds of thousands of people around the world—down here to clean up his mess.