When One Door Closes?

Monsoons in Myanmar, earthquakes in China, typhoons in the Philippines, floods in Iowa, the salmon population dying off in the Pacific Northwest. And perfectly adequate teachers not being rehired in districts where they previously did good work for 2 years...something is up. It's a good thing I have nothing but time now to figure out just exactly what is going on.

Although actually, I may only have four years. The Ancient Mayans believed the world is going to collapse in 2012. And so do quite a few others with websites named, "13 Moon," "Circles of Light," and "Great Dreams." Oh, and my mother who is quick to point out that Obama is not the anti-Christ because he is black, as I quipped in a previous entry, but because of the Mayans (you do the math). The former would just be crazy, racist talk, the later is obviously edjukated, rational talk. (I suppose this makes the now fashionable Michelle the Eva Braun-like victim?) But before you go thinking we're all fist-pumping our way to hell, most people believe that 2012 simply marks the end of one cycle of a longer Mayan calender.

According to the Mayans, there are apparently 5 different cycles civilization will go through before any sort of apocalypse, each cycle lasting 5,126 years (depending on whether you believe exodus2006.com or churchofcriticalthinking.org). The specific date where the current calendar "ends" is 12/21/12. Some believe there is something to the ones and twos in the date but others are quick to point out that the Gregorian calendar we use was not calculated in the same way the Mayans used way back before JC. October is really supposed to be the eighth month, November the ninth and December the tenth. The 12/21/12 date has more to do with the winter soltice and the special alignment of stars that will occur on that day than any eerie math calculation/conincidenc.

Still, like those kooky Y2K believers, there are those who are stocking their shelves and emptying their 401K accounts, claiming that the previous 5,126 day cycles all ended in disaster (so-called apocalypses) - once a flood, one by fire and in the first cycle, a Jaguar came and ate everyone on earth. (Of course, somewhere else I read that we've only gone through 2 cycles...) Others say that most of the ancient Mayan texts were destroyed by the Spanish and we really don't know what the Mayans knew or didn't know about 2012, except that we all, one way or another will self-destruct because of something about the sun aligning with the Milky Way galaxy and a Snicker bar getting lodged in between them.

As for me, I'm not ready to stop worrying about retirement. I may not have a job (or job prospect) at the moment, but I do think Mother Earth will be here well past 2012. I take the view that something may very well happen on 12/21/12 but not in a cataclysmic sort of way. Maybe it'll just be the shift we need to make sense of all the things that seem a bit too odd at the moment whether about the weather, gas prices, Presidential hopefuls or the well qualified but unemployed. Maybe it'll be like someone shutting the door on 5,126 years of conflict and opening the door to 5,126 years of peace? Or maybe we're all doomed. Either way, I'm not giving up on the world today.