You took your leave just in a nick of time, my dear brother. Of course I was sad to see you go, of course I still miss you, of course I wish we still had more time, or a do-over, and of course there are still many things I want to do with you. However things have taken a drastic change for the worst here on this planet. Or perhaps it was you leaving that changed the world... wait, did you break everything when you left?
I know I have said this before, but each time it has a new (not great) meaning. You would not recognize this world today. The seasons are all mixed up (it's getting harder to grow food, or anything for that matter), the planet is warming at an unnatural pace (the sun and heat are punishing - I don't do well in it), ice sheets and glaciers are melting (or have already disappeared), extinctions have accelerated at an alarming rate, environmental pollution is affecting every aspect of health, the rainforests are being levelled for cattle farms (and cattle are a main contributor to methane release), corporate capitalism is now end-stage capitalism (it's death throws are getting more painful to everyone except the rich elite), the permafrost is melting (and releasing god knows what), America is on the verge of a civil war, not to mention we are closer to global nuclear war now then we were in the early 70's. Sea levels are rising fasting that climate models first predicted (there are new factors increasing this along the way that have been hard to predict or account for) and some island nations have already disappeared, and the intensity of our storms have become so severe, the damage and the number of people dying is starting to become normalized. Nationalism, Christofascism, Racism, conflicts and geopolitical tensions are all on the rise, and you can see the Alt-Right has been working for years to obtain higher positions of policy and decision making, military and legal power, and now that they have succeeded they are indeed making the small changes required to change the political landscape. I'm sure I missed something there, sometimes I just don't have the capacity to hold it all at one time.
So if any time in human history could be called "the end-times" it is undoubtedly right now. Turns out my GenX existential dread was prophecy after all.
Please stay close as I navigate this!
