The End Of The World As We Know It?

The end of the world as we know it?

Here comes Big Friday.  You’ve seen the documentaries on places like The Discovery Channel.  You’ve heard the prophecies.  The Mayan calendar “Long count” cycle of 5,000+ years will end on December 21.  Other ancient civilizations have similar prophecies for this date.  There’s also supposed to be a huge galactic event where Earth and our sun line up with the dark center of the galaxy.  All sorts of bad possibilities are being bantered about.

And then there’s the sun, which is at the peak of solar flare and plasma storm activity.

Depending on who you believe, this Friday we could meet our end in a fiery volcanic cataclysm or a galactic pulse of really negative energy.

But on the bright side…

The Mayan calendar is a cycle, just like our calendar.  We start a new cycle every January 1, with little or no earth-shattering events.  And they’ve recently discovered Mayan writings that reference time after the end of this great cycle. 

Could it be the starting of a new cycle might be a chance for positive things to happen?

Perhaps all this talk of doom and gloom might give us pause to do something positive, like at the very least a little thinking about the quality of our lives and where this whole civilization thing is going.  If the world did end, what would be said of the human race?  Interesting thought to ponder.

I prefer to borrow a few words from the movie “Contact”, based on astronomer Carl Sagan’s book about our first encounter with extra-terrestrials.  Read the book or see the movie to really get it, but the short version is at one pivotal point in the story an extra-terrestrial being is sharing observations about earth and its inhabitants. 

“You are an interesting species,” he says “you are capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares.” 

Think about that.  And think about all that’s going on these days.  Which would you rather focus on?  As for me, I want the beautiful dreams to be where we are headed.

And I’ve already made vacation plans for 2013.

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