It is certainly NOT the end of the world!
The world is NOT ending in December of 2012.
Let’s just get that notion out there, right now.
Seriously, people. I don’t care that the Mayan long-form calendar ends, or that the planets are aligning or there will be a harmonic convergence or what-have-you. The world is
NOT coming to an end in a few months.
Let’s look at all the world-ending prophecies we’ve had. Just recently there was that crazy radio guy claiming the world was supposed to end last May. THEN, oops, bad math – make that September. No, October. As I am typing this a year later…the world clearly did not end.
And the Y2K bug. Remember that one? It was going to cause utter collapse, be the beginning of the end? Tell me how that turns out…no, wait, that was no big deal.
This is a very simple matter. You know what will happen on December 21, 2012? Pretty much the same thing that happened on December 20, 2012. And the 22nd? Same thing as the two days before. The sun will rise in the East and set in the West. We’ll go to work/school/the bathroom/what-have-you. We’ll wake, we’ll sleep, maybe nap in the middle. But nothing cataclysmic or particularly unusual will happen.
I expect that I will be watching the Doctor Who Christmas special on December 25th. I’ll be at a fun party with my friends on December 31st, celebrating New Year’s Eve. My sister will be birthing my niece or nephew in February. I will be watching the third season of Game of Thrones in March of 2013 (or whenever they air it next year). No matter how spectacular or mundane the event to come – it WILL come, as it always does.
So is there more to my statement? Yes. I think, subconsciously, a LOT of people suspect SOMETHING is going to happen before the end of this year. Whether they are new agers, bible-thumpers, conspiracy theorists, or even just regular, average people, there is still this SENSE of a shift, impending doom, or something just not-the-norm.
It is that sense, that not-belief but sense that something is going to happen, that I think fuels a LOT of the negative, inactive stance a lot of people have taken. I think that air of defeat, that feeling of negativity that is permeating the energy of the world is part of this. And I think, when this date comes and goes…we will all begin to breathe again, and get more real about our lives.
I say we because it is very very hard NOT to feel this sense. I suspect, unless you are utterly disconnected from emotion and empathy or even facial expressions of the people around you, you are feeling it. It is underlying everything. It is just THERE, unspoken, unwritten, just lurking in the background, hiding in the shadows of our reality.
I believe that it is this sense that is causing a lot of normally rational, reasonable people to be far less rational or reasonable. I think more people, not normally prone to be at all affected by doom-and-gloom predictions are being so inundated by this one, it is causing us to remain in a negative cycle.
Oh, come on, you are probably thinking. Give me a break. This is a crock. Of course nothing is going to happen, so why on earth do you think people think otherwise? It is not that people are thinking otherwise – it is that we have the thought out there in the first place.
Doomsday prophecies stretch all throughout history. All the way back to the Romans, all throughout the centuries since their society fell, someone has made a prediction that this thing or that will bring about the end of the world. This has been going on since the development of our ability to walk upright and think, it seems. Whether it is the significance of a date, mass deaths due to a horrid disease, global warming, ice caps melting or some other tangible or intangible sign, people have been predicting there WILL be an end.
And of course – there WILL. Life is a cycle – everything born dies. But the end is NOT going to be predictable, it is not going to be some bizarre cosmic occurrence or the Rapture or something like that. It will simply BE.
This particular prediction has been getting traction for a decade or so, to the best of my memory. As we have gotten closer and closer to the supposed day of destiny, more and more talk about it occurs. And thanks to the 24 hour news cycle, the internet, and the visceral immediacy of the world we live in, this enters the collective consciousness with a broader range and FAR greater speed than it has ever been possible any other time in history.
More people are reading articles about this. More people are researching the topic on the internet. More people are able to find and study this concept across the globe than ever possible, than any time prior in human history. The paradoxical disconnect of the world of the internet and text messages and global communications has brought us closer to being physically connected to one another more than ever. But, it’s the minds and not the souls being brought together – and thus we are more distant at the same time (hence the paradox).
So what? Is there a point? Yes. I have, more than once, written about the need to be more positive amongst us all. I have spoken of my belief that all of us are one, all part of a greater oversoul. We need to be more conscious of our thoughts and ideas than we are. And in doing so, I think we can get past this ridiculous notion of the end of the world, and actually LIVE for today.
And that is the crux of this. There is too much time and energy spent on the mysteries of life. Too much emphasis on religion and faith and the powers-that-be intervening. If people put more of that energy into the here and now, and living life today…I think we’d be better at dealing with the issues we all face, and be better at living our own lives.
I am not suggesting we ignore these mysteries, or drop our faith, whatever that may be – I am suggesting we reprioritize, rebalance our lives. Stop worrying so much about what is coming, and focus on what IS. This might go a long ways towards improving our lots in life.
I’m not suggesting anything radical or ludicrous. I am suggesting we think more for ourselves; spend more energy on the here and now; act rather than react to our world. Stop giving energy to doomsday predictions, stop worrying about doing right by the powers-that-be (the mystical, not the governmental or such), and start working on our own lives.
So, what have you got planned for today?
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