You may have heard the saying, “The only thing that is the end of the world is … the end of the world.”

Former President Barack Obama used that bit of shrug-it-off wisdom a few years back, after the election of one Donald J. Trump to succeed him as president, a development that sent many people into a near panic — a feeling now on repeat cycle in 2024.

It’s a sign of our times, that whatever is happening with us, to us, can herald the end of all that we know and love.

It’s not just a sign of our times, since humans throughout recorded history have been waiting for everything to crash down in one terrifying and cascading torrent of doom. Today’s catastrophizing is aided and abetted by our modern habit of doom scrolling and by the incessant digital chatter coming at us from all corners of the globe.

From William Yeats’ classic poem “The Second Coming”:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

Yeats wrote this after the First World War, where millions of people were killed in a futile battle for European supremacy. His point was that humanity has reached the tipping point and that civilization as humans know it is about to collapse.

He had no way of knowing that the next world war would dwarf the horrors of the first war. Or that the harnessing of the split atom would give humans the power to end this world in a final mushroom cloud of oblivion.

Still, we can’t help but notice that on most issues of the day, even the back-and-forth discourse from readers on the various topics that arouse “passionate intensity” in this space, there is an element of portending catastrophe.

Just a few examples.

The continuing furor over the future of passenger rail and a recreational biking and pedestrian trail along the coast has again reached a fever pitch. Proponents of rail and trail are accusing government leaders essentially of betraying the voice of the people after a 2022 vote that sent a trail-only plan to an overwhelming defeat at the polls.

Then there’s downtown Santa Cruz, where plans for an 18-story apartment building near the Clock Tower, along with other large-scale buildings either already constructed or in the concept stage, are being greeted with cries that Santa Cruz as long-time residents have known it is being destroyed. The invasion of the Silicon Valley body snatchers will soon be complete and our town, already unaffordable, will become just another wealthy enclave for technocrats and their Teslas.

Add to these the ravages of climate change, housing, national political divisions, Gaza and the fears about Putin, immigrants, crime, right-wing nationalists — and the center does not seem to be holding.

And yet, a few things remind us the end may be coming, but it’s not dark yet:

Monday’s eclipse, partial for us, was just a momentary reminder of the totality of our existence, as millions of people flocked to spots to view the sun blotted out from the sky. This celestial event that in ages past terrified people now became yet another social media-fueled crowd phenomenon.

Or water. Despite warnings that years of drought meant our water supply would continue to dwindle, two years of plentiful rainfall have replenished reservoirs and groundwater beneath the surface.

The recent local election saw centrists elected or headed for November runoffs. New housing is coming. Local volunteers are legion.

And last weekend’s demolition of the Capitola Avenue bridge over Highway 1, while it caused some motorists distress when traffic was diverted, was completed hours earlier than expected and drivers were on their way by Sunday afternoon.

Nothing earth shattering, but a reminder that for the most part, there are no nefarious forces at work loosening anarchy and the blood-dimmed tide.

We’re still here — perhaps waiting, yes, but working together, parts of the whole.