Blessed be the media and Hollywood for quenching our thirst for fear and despair.
This is one of those times when I sit for a while and think of the right way to start a response or article. I think of how I am supposed to weigh the overall input people are getting and what serves as a back up to a potential fearsome situation, or should I say, rumor.
I try to think of what I want to say and the possible spiritual impact it may have but this time I just have to blurt out, “What is up with you people?”
I watched the trailer of that new 2012 movie and while I appreciate computer graphics I have to say even that went too far. Since the main fear is all this doom we are allegedly going to face I’ll try to help those who are severely challenged in science.
If those things happened to the magnitude shown in that movie (tidal waves washing over Tibet, California sliding into the Pacific…) there will be no safe place to hide so go party like there’s no tomorrow.
The things that are supposed to happen, floods, massive earthquakes and tidal waves, are the not as big of problems that face the people who would survive these things. Their big adventure would be trying to live intelligently together with each other in the simple quest for rebuilding and searching for food.
Their big challenge would be not to succumb to unfounded fears of other people that have different belief systems than they do and not kill them. You know, the same problems we have now. So let’s not even go there. Let’s look at some simple things.
I’ve read my share of Mayan books and better yet, I’ve met Mayans and they get a good laugh at how 2012 is spooking so many people. I think it’s a bit sad really. When I look at the Mayan calendar and think about why it ended at that date I think, “Maybe they ran out of room.” According to the calendar on my wall, time as I know it will end in a little over a month. When I read Revelations I think it could all end at any moment and if I watch TV I realize my life would have never amounted to anything anyways because I don’t drink Bud Light and drive a cool truck.
So now we have this calendar from a lost or expired civilization, around which we plan our demise. That’s brilliant. I may be ready for that Bud Light now.
Anyone else remember on the evening of 1999? The computers were supposed to shut down, go nutty, take over the world, launch all our nuclear weapons, blah, blah…. I remember a couple planetary line ups that were supposed to give us a real shakedown but I can’t remember anything that bad that actually happened. (Maybe I was abducted and they erased that part.)
The only mass catastrophes I remember were caused by people. Everything from industrial disasters, wars, Jim Jones punch and castrated guys with rolls of quarters with their Nikes waiting on the mother ship.
Here’s what I think will happen the evening of December 21st 2012.
There will be scores of massive heart attacks in the advertising and marketing industry from people trying to figure out whether they should promote sales on “only four more shopping days till Christmas” or “last day on Earth sale, everything will go!”
Maybe some retired sports guys will have a televised party with a few retired news people that evening.
“Good evening everyone, we’re here tonight wondering if there is a “ground zero” for all this or if the destruction has already started on the other side of the International Date Line.”
“That’s right Bob, those are some tough questions. Good thing it’s not Summer so we don’t have to calculate daylight savings time”
(hearty group laugh)
“Whoa, Barbara, aren’t you the end of the world party girl this evening?”
“ Thanks Bob. Were going to take a commercial break now then Armageddon out of hear. ”
(group laughter)
” Me too, my kids said they weren’t going to do their homework!”
(more hysterical group laugh, then cut to commercial)
Yeah, it all starts to look a little different, doesn’t it? Even the Mayans are saying the calendar doesn’t mean the end of the world is on that date. They still speak their language, keep their customs and watch the calendars, theirs and ours and they aren’t in any panic about our doom date.
The reality is that most of us have a higher chance of dying in traffic going to a job we don’t like, doing something we don’t want to do and be with people we don’t want to be around. Now that’s a scary thought.
It’s true that we are the most spiritual just after disasters or before impending doom but historically we have piloted the sources of our most severe cataclysms. We really haven’t evolved much.
Hopefully, sooner than later, all of humanity will need to rethink life in general and our impact on the planet.
As Americans, we should step up to the plate and swing a home run for the Earth team, even if we are the only team playing. The only way to efficiently do this in a timely manner is to lead by example. We used to be good at that.
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