If the World Ends Next Month...

Will the world end on 21 December 2012? Have you thought about it? I haven't, really, until this afternoon.While driving, I tuned in to "A Prairie Home Companion," which airs on 89.7FM, WGBH, from Boston.  I was making just a short trip home from the grocery store, so I only heard a portion of Garrison Keillor while I navigated over the Natick bridge that takes me from Warwick to West Warwick.In his monologue, Mr. Keillor touched upon the Mayan 'end of the world.'  And he spoke about a man who had pancreatic cancer, facing the end of his life. And what do you do when you know the end is near? Do you do something heroic? Fly to Paris? Write your memoir? Fall in love?Or do you just go about the things you've always done, like put away the lawn chairs, clean out the basement. Regular things that make up your life. Maybe you'd wake earlier to see the sunrise, take a walk with a child, drink a good red wine.Whether you're facing a terminal disease or the perceived end of the world by a Mesoamerican civilization, what would you do? If the Mayan calendar is to be believed, then we all have 32 days to live. How will you spend those days?If the world as we know it ends on December 21st, four days ahead of Christmas, then it might be a good idea to use Thanksgiving as a chance to mend a fence, right a wrong, touch a heart.