The end of the world

We saw Seeking a Friend for the End of the World last night.  The premise is exactly that as the story follows a character who passively seeks out someone to spend the final moments of humanity's existence with.  Watching how some of the minor and background characters handled the impending end of humanity got me thinking about what I would do.  Many people were travelling medium to long distances to be and visit with family one last time.  One couple was going to see family up and down the East Coast and spend a little time with each.  Another character talked about trying to make it back to England to be with her family.  Then of course there were the hedonistic views of the end with people eating, drinking, doing drugs, and having sex "without" consequence.  I say without in quotes, because in my mind even if the world is ending you still have your own ethics to be true to.  Of course some of these might be bent or broken given the circumstances (stealing food, perhaps, if needed to survive as social order breaks down), but having cheating to have meaningless sex doesn't seem to fit that bill.  In the end I decided while it would be nice to spend time with family it would also be hard to justify spending your remaining days running around, trying to make flights, fighting security at the airport, and being stuck with endless delays.  I would remain either in my home or in a childhood home surrounded by a space that is familiar to me.  Ideally I would be with the HyWy and the little guy, but failing that I would just try to find some comfort with people around me in our shared experience.  I don't think I would do anything extravagant or scratch things off an end of the world bucket list.  I would want to be somewhere peaceful so if wherever I live was ravaged by riots I would like to go somewhere more rural.  I guess what I'm saying is I would want normalcy and peace to surround me in the end.

The 'crime' of parenting

I read a story earlier today about two parents that changed their son's diaper on a chair at a Starbucks since a changing table was not available in the bathroom.  I'm not going to debate whether they behaved correctly or not, but rather the outcry that comes with parenting stories today.  The comments that people make inevitably take some form of 'they had the kid they should figure out how to manage/handle/navigate the situation.'  I don't think that society needs to cater to a parent's every needs, but some small conveniences really do help.  The self centered attitude of non parents alienates parents, but conversely the self centered attitude of parents causes non parents to push back.  We went for a hike the other day on a jogging/hiking/biking trail and we took a jogging stroller with us.  This stroller is meant for off road hiking/running and the trail was just wide enough for a single lane of traffic in both ways.  As we approached a narrow passage a biker came in the opposite direction and questioned our use of a 'stroller' on a hiking trail in a tone dripping with condescension.  I didn't hear it in time to give him a piece of my mind about bikes on a mostly jogging trail, but I was glad he was in the minority.  Every other biker we passed was perfectly pleasant.  We try not to inconvenience others when taking care of our little guy and as such it really bothers me when I'm made to feel like a criminal for just trying to have a normal life.