.
Two followers of Harold Camping, wearing a dejected look, stand outside in a parking lot near Family Radio headquarters, Saturday 21 May, 2011: photo via International Business Times, 22 May 2011
The hope of believers in the universal rapture springboard death cult was mile high
The fall back into reality, not so good
Advertisement in New York City subway by the U.S. religious group Family Radio, a Christian radio network, warning of an impending Judgment Day, Times Square, New York, 13 May 2011. The designation of May 21 came from Family Radio president Harold Camping, who predicted that date through a series of mathematical calculations and the unraveling of codes behind the Bible story of the Great Flood: photo by Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
As darkness fell over the still existent world on the forecast day of doom the prophet was nowhere to be found
But the world darkness is always at its most obscure just before the dawn
Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio: photo by Associated Press, 2011; on Sunday 22 May, the morning after the end of the world which he had predicted, Camping appeared briefly at his front door, wearing tan slacks, a tucked-in polo shirt and a light jacket, telling reporters "It was a really tough weekend," but that he'd be back at work with a revised doomsday prophecy on Monday
From the far reaches of the endarkened world new signs and wonders yet came
Maybe all was not yet lost
Maybe the fat lady hadn't yet sung
Maybe she had just been clearing her throat before her final aria
Down there inside the volcano
Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland, beginning at 5:30 on the evening of 21 May 2011: photo by Olaf Sigurjónsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office)
Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland, beginning on the evening of 21 May 2011: photo by Olaf Sigurjónsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office)
Plume rising from Grimsvötn volcano eruption, Iceland, on the evening of 21 May 2011: photos by Olaf Sigurjónsson (Icelandic Meteorological Office)
Car immersed in darkness due to ash fallout on Highway One, outside Kirkjubaejarklaustur: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011
Sheep on a farm during ash fallout in Mulakot: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011
The sun is seen through ash fallout on Highway One, outside the small town of Kirkjubaejarklaustur: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011
Tire tracks are seen on a surface of volcanic ash deposit outside a gas station in Kirkjubaejarklaustur: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011
Icelandic photographer Robert Reynisson covers the volcanic eruption at the edge of the ash fallout zone in Reykjavik: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011 (via International Business Times)
Smoke rises from the Grimsvötn volcano under the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland: photo by Reuters, 22 May 2011
Grimsvötn blows its top: Day One
ReplyDeleteLiteral "end of the world" scenarios are always too "end of the world" for me; I spend a good deal of my time (not always successfully) trying to resist panic and assisting others in doing so and I can't easily imagine what impels people toward embracing Doomsday except strange shifting combinations of the profit motive, on the one hand, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance, on the other (these not being mutually exclusive). The remarkable images you've shared (especially the one of the small plane near the Iceland plume taken, presumably, from another small plane) are as close as I'd like (and am likely) to get to Armageddon. I just heard news about another appalling incident near Durango, Mexico involving about 100 drug cartel executions, 20 corrupt police and a mass grave and it prompts memories of our own kidnapping in Mexico City 15 years ago at the hands of corrupt police. I feel very lucky. Lost Weekend is a very good title.
ReplyDeleteCurtis, "an exaggerated sense of self-importance" is right on the mark. To an ant crawling up a mountain, its own shadow might seem enormous.
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteHarold and his family will be very happy to see this -- all is not lost, Grimsotn blows its top. . . .
5.23
silver edge of sun in clouds above still
shadowed ridge, green leaves on branches
in foreground, sound of waves in channel
having completed this, “will
see something of air”
going and coming, this going
coming back, “it was”
silver of sunlight reflected in channel,
line of 3 pelicans gliding toward point
Well, perhaps happiness is relative... to... one forgets.
ReplyDeleteAnd the weakly erupting sun slices through the ice fog much as a silver sliver o'er the isle of Alameda, where dwelleth the far-seeing hero Harold, e'en now.
having completed this, “will
see something of air”
going and coming, this going
coming back, “it was”
For the Prophets, there is always a New Morning, even if they didn't want one.
'Harold and his family will be very happy to see this -- all is not lost, Grimsotn blows its top. . . .'
ReplyDeleteThe top most comment on the Grimsvötn blows its top: Day One says a lot.
'great thx 4 the apple page we just got 1 also.'
One wonders whether Harold clapped his hands in joy at the news coming out of Joplin, or saw the clouds above Grimsvotn as a sign that all is not (quite) lost. . . .
ReplyDelete