The End of the World

I have been having extremely vivid dreams lately.  Some of which are recurring.  One in particular is a very unpleasant prospect.... the end of the world.

I have been fascinated with "World War III" and the apocalypse since I was little.  I remember my Grandpa Joe (who died in 1984...and whose death I dreamed about before it actually happened) buying my sister and I our first television (well.... the first one that would just be in mine and my sister's room), for use with our Atari 2600.  My sister and I loved having a TV all to ourselves because it meant that we could watch movies and TV shows at all hours of the night while our parents were asleep.  And usually it was stuff we weren't allowed to watch otherwise.  Our favorite shows being Monty Python, Benny Hill, and Archie Bunker's Place (a spin off of All in the Family). 

One of the movies we watched, against our parent's wishes was a movie called "The Day After" which appeared on national television in 1983.  The movie depicted a nuclear exchange between the United States and Soviet Union..... which is something that was considered a possibility at the time.  The movie depicted people being vaporized by a nuclear blast, and the aftermath of nuclear war.  I remember my Mom being horrified that my sister and I were watching it, and periodically came in our room to shut off the TV.  But my sister and I turned it back on.  Before watching the movie, I had never seen or heard of anything like it.  I didn't even know what nuclear war was.  The possibility of countries fighting with each other and such a gruesome method of destruction really frightened me.  The possibility that the world could even end at all was a new one for me. It was kind of a shock to my system, and I had difficulty sleeping for weeks after watching the movie.

Although I think nuclear war could still be a possibility in my lifetime, the recurring dream I have about the end of the world involves natural disaster.  For a long time I've dreamed and also felt that the world as we know it would end that way.  It's not far fetched at all.... the whole world watched as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated Indonesia, and over 230,000 people were killed.  And the more we destroy our planet, the possibility of disasters involving climate change becomes greater.

I often wonder how people can possibly prepare for such disasters.  In my recurring dream.... it seems like no one was prepared.  I get the sense that we were warned but few took it seriously.  I'm not sure in the dream whether I took it seriously or not..... maybe I did but just didn't prepare properly.  I'm not certain what kind of natural disaster overtakes us in the dream..... it seems like "a bad hurricane" to me.  I can see heavy rain....lots of water....trees bending in ways I've never seen.... wind and gray sky.  In my dream, the storm sort of envelopes and crashes through and onto my home.... windows smash, doors blow open, and there is just nowhere to go.  No possibility of escape.  I see a huge wave of water rush in, and then blackness.  I died alone in my dream.  I guess I would prefer that, rather than having to possibly watch loved ones die.

How do you feel about this possibility?  How would you prepare?  Would you want to survive?