Going over the edge

I read a series of books in the mid 90's written by Terry Pratchett. They were science fiction/fantasy and I loved every single one of them. His description of how the world in the physical sense ends always helped paint a vivid picture for me of the world his characters were living in. The planet was called Discworld, and it was a flat disc on top of a giant turtle, floating through the galaxy. Water just flowed off the edge of the world, endlessly.
Sometimes I wish the world were flat so I could just walk in a straight line all the way across it, double back, and then walk over the edge, down the waterfall, just to see what lies beyond it.
Or maybe it could be like the world of The Little Prince, a round world that he walked around and around. I haven't read that book or been read that book in so long that I can't remember much more than the cover-a little boy in a blue shirt, broom in hand, defying gravity.

Part Two

The End is Near

As a child I had some exposure to religious fanaticism, some experiences in the church, some outside. I can't recall if I ever saw someone holding a sign saying "The End is Near!", but I sat through enough Sunday school classes with topics like "The Rapture" and the book of Revelation to know that some people just can't seem to wait for the end of times.
I remember how a good friend of mine in college and I used to email back and forth and trade song lyrics-often the songs of U2 would come up. They have a song I remember as including the words, "You were acting like it was the end of the world." Now, whether or not someone can actually predict the end times (Nostradomous, The National Enquirer, etc.), is of little concern to me. I have enough going on in my day to day life that when or how the world stops or my time on it ends does not make much of a difference.
How I live my life, however, is another thing altogether...

Part one

A psalm

My life goes on in endless song
Above earths lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?

While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock Im clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble in their fear
And hear their death knell ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile
Our thoughts to them are winging,
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing?

-Doris Plenn