I suppose I should be writing a 2022 year in review or something but...I just don't feel like it. Honestly, there are so many best book of the year lists it's overwhelming and I'm not going to add to that. Instead I'm going to talk about the cheery topic of the end of the world, as seen through the eyes of Ray Bradbury. Stay with me.

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I’m on the worst ferry ride imaginable.

11 hours overnight.

Sleeping on the floor of a large, overly bright room that used to be the reservation desk area. The desk is still in place, and we prop up against its undersides.

The coffee machine in the bar breaks right as my turn in line comes up.

I am too tired to try to find the bar on the next level so I return to our stolen seats coffee-less.

I don’t remember what we are talking about, probably tattoos, and Kim says to me, “You’ve never read The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury?”

No. I have not.

I am only recently interested in Mr. Bradbury and I’d not heard of this title. I request it from the library on the spot, have to wait a few weeks.

When it arrives, I like the story of the titular illustrated man, with his moving tattoos that tell stories. The book is comprised of those illustrated stories so we can read about them since we can’t actually watch them.

The stories themselves are mostly comprised of fantasy tales about the future, space men and sometimes about their families back on earth, waiting for them-looking up into the sky every night- searching for Mars or the Moon. They are about alternate reality and often space but there’s something magical about Bradbury characters- their humanness amongst the stars.

And then there’s this one story, ‘The Last Night of the World.’ This story is about a family, the mother and father have had the same dream, the people in their town have had the same dream, and because of the dream they believe the world will end before they wake. They do nothing abnormal, go about their day as they typically would. They are so calm in their knowledge of the end of the world. There’s something beautiful about their calmness. It is a very short story and so beautiful.

I read it and immediately find a link of the whole text and send it to approximately five people who I think might appreciate it. I want to know what they would do the night before the world as they know it ends.

I am playing The Question Game with a new friend and the card asks, “You have seven days to live. How will you spend them?”

I think about this a lot. At first I thought I’d spend those seven days getting my affairs in order- getting my journals in a safe place!- or getting rid of all my stuff. But then, I think I’d rather spend that time with my loved ones. I have a lot of loved ones. How will I make that work?

Maybe I’d rather spend it reading my favorite stories one more time.  Spend my time rereading The Poet X, Everything Sad is Untrue, The Poisonwood Bible, The Archivist, The Night Circus, The Astonishing Color of After, rereading Richard Brautigan and J.D. Salinger and Anne Lamott and Pema Chodron and Thich Nhat Hanh bell hooks and, and, and...

For some reason, I can only imagine the last night of the world, or even just of my world, to be NYE. Maybe because I lived through Y2K when none of us knew what would happen the morning of January 1, 2000? I can’t imagine the world ending on say, June 11^th. What sense would that make?

So, the last night? If I know it’s my last night? I think I’ll cook my favorite meal (whatever I might decide that is, I have no idea), take a bath while listening to my favorite songs on repeat (Lovely Rita, I’m looking at you), and go to bed early.

What would you do?