Today's date hit me this morning over coffee. In 20 days the Mayan long count calendar ends, heralding the end of the fourth age. Do I believe that the world is going to end in 20 days? No. I believe that the end of the world as we know it is going to begin, though.
Somewhere long about 1988 or 1989, in the summer, I discovered this prophecy. Imagine the excitement of an 8 or 9 year old child discovering a thousands of years old prophecy, especially one that no one was talking about. I remember that day. I was at the library doing research (as much as an 8 or 9 year old child can, anyway), and that particular day I was reading about ancient Central America. I'd devoured what I could from the old encyclopedias (there were 3 different sets, none newer than about 1975) on the Incas and Aztecs and had begun reading about the Mayans. I was fascinated by these cultures advanced mathematics and astronomy, their art, and their mythology. Then there was a tiny paragraph about the long count calendar ending on the winter solstice of 2012 with nothing after.
My imagination ran wild. I had to go and tell my best friend Michael. He had to know this because I knew that it would excite him, too. It did. For days we looked into our own futures. We could not fathom being in our 30's. We wondered where we would be, what we would be doing.
The truth is stranger than any fiction we could come up with, just as this 'Mayan Apocalypse' has taken on a much bigger life of its own that, I'm sure, the Mayan culture ever realized. I don't believe that this is going to be the doomsday. I believe that it is going to be the beginning of a kind of doomsday, though. I believe that those who see our mother as disposable are going to find themselves in a shrinking minority. The slash-and-burners are going to find themselves hitting walls, not just finding pockets of resistance. The wastefulness of our rampant consumerism and big business is going to fade. Climate change is going to be recognized as actually happening.
This things have already begun. They have begun all over, small pockets of local people refusing big business, refusing consumerism and wastefulness. This refusal is going to spread in the coming years and decades. More people are going to turn toward sustainability and growing their own crops for food. Things are going to start going back to the way they were in our grandparents time. There will be things which are kept, like the internet, but we understand that working toward a goal of a healthier planet doesn't necessarily mean giving up all of our modern amenities. How better to be able to come up with new and more efficient ideas for conserving what we have than by being connected to the greater community?
So, there's no reason to hoard away food, water, fuel, and ammunition. We are simply cycling back toward a simpler time. We will make of the 'end of the world' what we choose. What do YOU choose?
Somewhere long about 1988 or 1989, in the summer, I discovered this prophecy. Imagine the excitement of an 8 or 9 year old child discovering a thousands of years old prophecy, especially one that no one was talking about. I remember that day. I was at the library doing research (as much as an 8 or 9 year old child can, anyway), and that particular day I was reading about ancient Central America. I'd devoured what I could from the old encyclopedias (there were 3 different sets, none newer than about 1975) on the Incas and Aztecs and had begun reading about the Mayans. I was fascinated by these cultures advanced mathematics and astronomy, their art, and their mythology. Then there was a tiny paragraph about the long count calendar ending on the winter solstice of 2012 with nothing after.
My imagination ran wild. I had to go and tell my best friend Michael. He had to know this because I knew that it would excite him, too. It did. For days we looked into our own futures. We could not fathom being in our 30's. We wondered where we would be, what we would be doing.
The truth is stranger than any fiction we could come up with, just as this 'Mayan Apocalypse' has taken on a much bigger life of its own that, I'm sure, the Mayan culture ever realized. I don't believe that this is going to be the doomsday. I believe that it is going to be the beginning of a kind of doomsday, though. I believe that those who see our mother as disposable are going to find themselves in a shrinking minority. The slash-and-burners are going to find themselves hitting walls, not just finding pockets of resistance. The wastefulness of our rampant consumerism and big business is going to fade. Climate change is going to be recognized as actually happening.
This things have already begun. They have begun all over, small pockets of local people refusing big business, refusing consumerism and wastefulness. This refusal is going to spread in the coming years and decades. More people are going to turn toward sustainability and growing their own crops for food. Things are going to start going back to the way they were in our grandparents time. There will be things which are kept, like the internet, but we understand that working toward a goal of a healthier planet doesn't necessarily mean giving up all of our modern amenities. How better to be able to come up with new and more efficient ideas for conserving what we have than by being connected to the greater community?
So, there's no reason to hoard away food, water, fuel, and ammunition. We are simply cycling back toward a simpler time. We will make of the 'end of the world' what we choose. What do YOU choose?
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