October 21

So Doomsday didn't happen on May 21st. As Gomer Pyle would say, "Surprise, surprise, surprise." As far as my children were concerned it was just another Saturday. My eldest asked me several days before what I thought about the prediction. I told him I only know the facts. We will not know the day or time that Jesus will come and in my opinion, to say you do is just a smidge conceited. That seemed to answer that question. On that particular Saturday we watched videos and saw pictures of other's opinions of the day. Some, I'll admit were pretty amusing, like all the pictures of clothes with no one in them because they were all gone. So maybe we used a bit of humor to mask some discomfort for this poor guy, and all his followers, who thought the world was going to end. And the world didn't end. We went on.

Then this morning I saw an article on CNN about the inexhaustible Mr. Harold Camping that now believes the end will be October 21, 2011. The little man who cried Apocalypse. I started thinking of this man and what I was going to teach my children about this new prediction and the others that would inevitably follow. I began to think that laughing at the poor man may be teaching my children poorly. Now, of course I don't believe we are being taken to Heaven on October 21st, but you have to give this man props for the courage of his convictions. He has lost all credibility and probably a few followers for his beliefs. Do we teach our children to take this as a joke or use this to teach tolerance for others? This guy truly believes what he says. Whether we choose to believe it or not is no longer the question. The new question is, how do I use this to teach my children to accept others, warts and all? It's a mighty big wart, but don't we all have one or two?