Many once believed that a thousand years after the fall of men the world would be healed. Every sign of civilization would be covered, retaken by the flora and fauna that survived humanity. In a thousand years, nature would have wiped the slate clean. Perhaps, in a thousand years, this will be the case. Who knows? But what those who came up with the millennial theory did not account for was the in-between. What will happen to the world between man’s downfall and nature’s resurrection? A thousand years is a blink of an eye to nature. To men, it is a long, long time.  

The oldest man to ever live, if one believes the story, lived nearly a millennium. He was just short at 969 years. In the time when the twilight of humanity waned, it seemed an impossibility for a human being to live so long, not with the current hundred year life expectancy. One tenth a millennium, nearly one tenth the span of one life lived millennia ago.  

One hundred years was hopeful at best. Cancer, heart disease, drunk driving, suicide, poor nutrition, lack of exercise, reliance upon technology, they sped men to their graves. How much healthier would someone have been had they played a real game of tennis or golf instead of clicking a few buttons on a controller while staring at a screen.  

Very few truly believed convenience would be man’s downfall. Radicals and religions thought it would be the biblical Armageddon, prior or post or without Rapture depending upon the sects. Some believed it would be global warming; the green movement sought to warn and remedy man's destruction of his own environment. Some thought of governmental downfall and that World War III would rear it’s ugly head with nuclear weapons in tow. Yet in the end, it was convenience.  

With every new technology invented to ease the burden of men, new burdens surfaced and new technology became needed. Mankind found themselves in a vicious cycle. They did not see it. They hailed each new convenient invention as a godsend. The housewife fell in love with the automatic vacuum cleaner. Now, instead of pushing a vacuum around her home or vigorously sweeping the floors once a day, all she had to do was push a button. She finally had time to sit and watch her favorite soaps. All day. Everyday. The invention of the car led to commuting. Cities changed, communities changed until the sense of community no longer existed. Yes, more jobs became available. But at what cost? Children could no longer safely play in their front yard. Mom was too busy watching her soaps and dad, at work a half hour drive away, could not be there to protect them from the neighborhood where they did not know any names of their neighbors.  

Fast food, chain restaurants, drive through pharmacies, drugs that treated symptoms instead of diseases… conveniences. People didn’t want to wait for the lengthy cure to take effect. They wanted to feel better. Right away. Immediately. To hell with healing. That took too long and was too much work. Give them what would make them feel better now. But the body adapts. And feeling better took more and more and more until the original problem sidled over to the back burner making way for the new and more urgent problem of addiction. 

Some would argue greed was the downfall. Corporations hid manufactured ingredients in their food to make it more addictive which in turn led to obesity and an increase in diabetes. Perhaps, in a way, greed and convenience went hand in hand. One wanted money because of the instant status it provided. One did not have to work towards being a good person as long as they had money. Money made it easy. With money, they did not have to lift their fingers to work. They did not clean their own cars. They did not cook their own meals. They had the easy life, the good life. But they died early, never reaching that hundred year goal. It took a lot of work to worry over keeping that money and power, that ease, once it was obtained. There was always the chance it could be lost again. They needed more. They needed security. They needed to maintain that easy lifestyle. It was all they knew.  

Slowly, like a tiny leak letting out one drop of water at a time into the plugged sink of the world, men dripped away their will to work. Some maintained the ethic of their father’s father’s father. Rare few they were, they were not enough to stop the flood. Mankind did not even realize the water had risen to above their necks until at last they became easy prey, a barrel filled with lazy fish.