When Will the World End?

I was approached by a first grader yesterday who asked me when the world was going to end. I told her that no one knew for sure when it would end. Then of course, she told me about 2012.

"Is the world really going to end in 2012?"

"Of course not. At least, not in my opinion," I said. Then I had to explain who the ancient Aztecs were, and all that. Note the above picture is the ancient Aztec calendar.

"When the world ends, will we end?"

I raised my eyebrows. The first thought that entered my mind was, how far can I go without getting sued or fired? Ahhh...thank God for unions.

"Do you go to church?" I asked.

"No. Well, not now. We used to..." This is where I pause and think of my pastor scolding me for not inviting her family to church.

Now we enter forbidden territory. Hot water. Separation of church and state and whatnot. I did answer her question, to the best of my ability, without pushing my beliefs on her. I have moments like this about once a week. A question about life or Christianity. I answer them, as generically as possible, but still getting the point across. She goes on to ask who controls space and time, and will the earth ever stop turning? Then of course, as I'm explaining gravity and phases of the moon and stuff, I've got kids who are surprised that an art teacher knows anything about science. Such misconceptions bother me. I like to consider myself a bit of a science whiz. ;)

Have you ever been sitting at your computer when a large hairy spider drops down on your keyboard out of nowhere? That also happened to me yesterday. I managed not to scream. I turned around to get a couple of tissues to smash the bugger with, but when I turned back around, it was gone! I searched everywhere, but never found the spider. Stupid spider. I was paranoid for the rest of the day, and felt psychological stinging sensations in my leg where I was bitten by a fiddleback last summer.

I've got to apologize for the lack of entertainment value of this blog entry. I've had this same killer headache for over a week now, and it just won't quit. Unfortunately, it's hard to laugh or find humor in things when I spend most of my time concentrating on not barfing. Or killing the cat.