If the World was About to End

In three weeks a giant asteroid is going to strike Earth, wiping out the entire planet.

Whatcha gonna do now?

How about Seeking A Friend for the End of the World?
That's the premise of the new movie starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley.

Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Is it a romance? Yes, but this isn't really a review of the movie, which I loved, by the way. It's more a reflection, or contemplation. After all, a movie about your (and everyone else's) last three weeks on earth is bound to raise some questions. For example, would you:

• Go back to your job for even a day?
• Keep exercising?
• Floss?
• Have a yard sale?
• Mow your grass?
• Spend it in a drug-induced haze?
• Leave your spouse immediately?
• Sleep with anyone whom you were attracted to?
• Drive across country to find the love of your life?
• Fly across the ocean to be with your family?
• Get married?
• Be baptized?
• Find God?
• Lose God?
• Hire a hit man to take you out before the asteroid hits?
• Destroy everything in your path, just for the fun of it?
• Make peace and forgive everyone who ever wronged you?
• Say your peace or take revenge on everyone who has ever wronged you?
• Recognize that regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or sexuality, we're all one?

While many movies have considered life from the perspective of an individual who knows he/she doesn't have long to live, I can't think of another that considers life in the context of the end of the world. It's a shockingly difficult thing to wrap your head around, but one that deserves reflection. Not because the world is likely to end tomorrow, or in three weeks, but because you have to wonder why we don't live all of our days as if they were the last. Not only our last, but mankind's last. I imagine we could let go of our bitterness and anger, our judgements and condemnation.

Although Seeking a Friend for the End of the World was a sucker punch to the gut emotionally (with some good laughs thrown in to ease the pain), it left me with one comforting thought.

I'm already with the people I'd want to spend my last days with. I imagine I'd take my husband and my children and as many friends and family members as I could gather, and head to the ocean to finish out my time in a place I love, with the people I love.

What about you?