12-12-2012

The idea: Some people believe that since the Mayan calander is set to end on this date, that the world will end with it. Some argue that even the Mayan believed that this was simply when the calander would start over, or that it would be a point of such great transformation as to warrant a new calander.

My Initial Thought: It's a week before my 30th Birthday: Close enough to the end of the world as far as I'm concerned. (Ok, not really. I'm actually quite excited to be 30.)

My Thoughts, extended: Everyone has an "end of the world" fear. Whether that is their own demise, a change so drastic as to upturn the world they thought they knew, or a literal end to the whole, objective world, everyone has this fear somewhere in them. We fear that which we don't know or understand. Slowly, along the way, we realize that as changes happen, life goes on and we adjust. Of course, as we adjust, we get comfortable, then find ourselves fearing change once again. The only significant change that life (at least, as we know it) does not go on after, is death.

Death is the one change that the best thing we have that we can glean any comfort from is a strong belief in what amounts to speculation. Many of us take great comfort in what we believe happens after we die. However, since, as is often said, no one has come back to tell us exactly what that is, it remains unproven.

I take my comfort, however, on this side of the veil. I, for one, and many like me, don't fear death so much as not truely living while I'm alive. I've been fortunate to have experiences where I knew at the depth of my being that if I should die, I'd die knowing that the people I love know I love them, that most of my life so far has been lived in a way I'd be proud of, and that my regrets aren't so much what I've done as what I haven't done. It's not as good as no regrets, but 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

I'm a big fan of stories. Stories move us, change us, shift us in subtle but important ways--at least good ones do. Stories, though, also shed light on ourselves as we are. They show us aspects of ourselves in magnification so that we may notice and acknowledge them. Stories teach us and give us context for moments in our lives. Many of us don't know what such archetypal experiences are like until we experience them so we need stories so that we can identify them when they happen and know that we are not alone. Just as words cannot define love, only experience can. Still, we tell stories, many many love stories, so that when we do experience it, we know the stories are all true. I believe that stories, myths, legends, scripture, and parables all exist and get carried on because they touch a part of our basic human nature. They give us magnified, dramatized context to understand the story of our own lives. In my opinion, the more popular, or the longer lasting they are, the deeper and more accutely they touch our souls. The trick, often, is to remember that the story reflects a part, or even several parts, of ourselves, so we must be careful not to let a single story define us completely.

End of the World stories, are exactly such soul touching stories. They grab us at our deepest fears and hold it out to us. They grab us so completely, that many of us do start to define ourselves by it. Many, many more of us let it stick enough that we may even question our existence as the date looms closer. Who among us didn't hold even a little tiny breath when Y2K changed over? Who among us have never, ever questioned what our life would be like should the world be over tomorrow?

Even still, I belive that stories touch us because we relate to them. Whether it is the End of the World, Meeting our Maker, Judgement Day, the Apocolypse or what have you, we consider what it will be like when our world ends. The End of the World stories give us a context to understand those experiences that bring us to our core. Those times when we know it is just us and the Truth. When we face the God of our understanding, the cold and true Mirror, or our own selves and know that there is no hiding, no veiling, no splitting hairs. That all we have ever done and not done, said and not said, is laid bare before us and our own judgement.

Those of us that are lucky, truly and wonderfully blessed, get that moment before we die. We have that opportunity to look at every choice we've ever made and decide what we want to continue with, and what we want to change. If we are honest enough, and if we are courageous enough, we can make those changes. That initial moment in my life made me want to tell more Truth, and choose less fear. I cannot say that I've been 100% able to do that, but I can see my choices more for what they are. Of course, once you have had that initial experience, you can have it more and more often, with less terror each time.

I believe that the End of the World stories are there to give us language and context for those experiences. So that those who've never had them recognize it when it comes. I also believe that these stories help us who are too afraid to have the experience see it for the blessing it is and have the courage too take honest moral inventories of ourselves. I believe that the End of the World stories keep popping up because people get to these stages at different times. Some have dates, like 12-12-2012, because some people need a deadline. So, as each deadline passes, another must be invented or found so that the people who need the story have it at hand.

That experience is blessed, but the stories have another point. End of the World stories have the common theme of beseaching us to be ready when the End comes. Apocolyptic thought always asks us to prepare ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually for what may happen after. When your deadline comes,will you be ready? Whether it comes before your death, at your death, or at the death of us all, what preparation do you need to be ready? I guess that answer is as individual as the stories that are told.

Of course, when it comes right down to it, I cannot prove that life as we know it wasn't just created mere moments ago and that what we call memory, history, or experience wasn't placed into our minds as illusion. So, I also cannot prove that life will not be blinked out of existence moments after I write this, or you read it, or hear it.

Similarly, we don't know if the Mayan calander truly predicts the physical, objective end of the world, the end of the world as we think we know it now, or simply the end of some peoples worlds, just as some peoples worlds end every day. Some will have their suspicions confirmed on 12-13-2012, if there is one, and some will need a more cosmic perspective.

Personally, I kind of wonder if we aren't just putting too much meaning into a number that someone thought was so astronomically far away as to never be reached anyway. Are we limiting our own lives based on the limited imagination of some person or persons from hundreds of years ago?

The gist: The End of the World may or may not come. The question is really, if it does for you, are you ready?