12/21/2012

I didn't know the significance of the year 2012 until chatting with a friend recently about the fate of the world and it's slow demise, during which she asked what I thought of "2012." She went on to explain that an entire section of Barnes & Noble is now devoted to books about 2012. When I explained I had no idea what 2012 was, she said that the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012 and there are numerous theories as to what it means, many of them centering around world destruction.

We as a society are obsessed with the end of the world! Is the world slowly dying? Yes. You can continue to live your life in your little bubble and refuse to see what is happening around you and to the world as a whole but the fact is that resources are dwindling, temperatures are rising, lands and waters are contaminated - we've been destroying the earth for centuries. It's scientifically proven. If you say you don't care, then you don't deserve to live here. Period.

But I don't understand our obsession with armageddon, and I'm not talking about it in a religious sense. Numerous movies have come out about asteroids, aliens, natural disasters, computer glitches and other ways that life as we know it will end. The whole idea is grossly romanticized by Hollywood. Bloodshed from wars, weapons of mass destruction and lives lost from natural disasters in the past decade have increased and elevated our awareness that maybe something has been put into motion. But the end of the world in one day? I don't know...

Back to the Mayans... The Mayan civilization has long been studied for their knowledge of mathematics and astronomy long before these concepts were understood in the Eastern world. Their calendar is highly intricate and some believe the Mayan Calendar is a prophetic calendar that may help us understand the past and foresee the future. Therefore, the fact that the calendar ends on December, 21, 2012 could be significant. Either the end of the world or a period of profound change, the Mayans must have known something we don't.

Or maybe they just didn't feel like going that far into the future! Think about it - the Mayan civilization began around the 1800 B.C. and their calendar begins around August 11, 3114 B.C. It should also be noted that their calendar does not follow the 365 days-a-year that our calendar follows. So maybe they ran out of time before the calendar got to 2012. What if the guy in charge decided he was fed up with his calendar duties and gave up just before their civilization collapsed? Maybe they couldn't foresee that far into the future. Who does?? I don't know about you, but I'm not sitting around wondering what's going to happen in April of 7003.

So, while I do believe the earth is heading in the wrong direction and the quality of life on this planet is significantly dwindling, I think 12/21/12 is going to come and go and we'll be no better or worse off than we are right now.