We All Get "It", In The End.

"I sat in the dark and thought: There is no big apocalypse.

Just an endless procession of little ones."

-Neil Gaiman

  Being a young American woman, it probably comes as no surprise that I was inundated with Christian ideals and teachings beginning at a very young age. I can remember many of the Sunday school lectures I attended when I was an adolescent girl, and most of them were quite pleasant and full of songs about Jesus loving me and a "little light" that was apparently in my possession. All in all, the overall experience was quite happy and enjoyable...until one day. I still recall the day when the youth pastor started to talk about hell and the apocalypse. To say that scare tactics were used liberally is a gross understatement. As the pastor talked, images of fire, chaos, and panic in the street filled my impressionable mind. I held onto these ideas about the "end of times" until my late teens (even though I had left the church years before). 

   When the newest apocalyptic craze bubbled up (Mayan 2012) I have to admit, with some shame, that I was slightly concerned. Obviously 2012 came to pass quite quietly and with no evidence of hellfire and damnation as far as I could tell. Despite this, my ideas about the apocalypse did not change at all. It wasn't until Professor Sexson said something profound (in my mind), that my ideas flipped a complete 180. The professor said that, when you trace the idea of an apocalypse back to its origins, it roughly means to "remove the veil" from one's eyes or the disclosure of knowledge. 

  It was at that moment that something clicked within my mind: Life is made up of tiny apocalypses, some occur within a few months and others from day to day. They are nothing to be afraid of, but something to embrace. With the conclusion of each day, class, semester, and year, the "Fallon" of yesterday dies and a new emerges. Layers and layers of veils are slowly being lifted from my eyes and I can only hope that this process continues. 

 The Veiled Virgin, year unknown, Marble, Giovanni Strazza