I have to confess … I’m fascinated by all the hype – even on the History channel which, I think, should stick to facts, not speculation – about the pending End of the World on Dec. 21.
Why all the furor? Why do we, as a species, love to fuss and fume and … yes … hype things that are clearly beyond our control?
Either the world is going to end on Dec. 21 – or it isn’t. If it does, there really isn’t a thing we can do about it, according to all the hype that’s gone on over the last couple or years or so.
If it doesn’t … well, we’ve wasted an awful lot of time fretting over nothing.
So … the question remains … Why?
I assume, if you believe in some kind of deity – a Higher Power – (which, by the way, I do), you should by now have made peace with that being. Not because the world is going to end on Dec. 21 – which in fact is highly unlikely – but because … well, we’re all mortal, and for great numbers of us, the world ends every day. Various kinds of accidents, homicides, illnesses … Any one of us could literally be here today and gone tomorrow.
If you don’t believe in a higher power, and you really believe the world will end on Dec. 21 because of the Mayan calendar or Nostradamus or whatever … What are you going to do about it?
Seriously – Can you personally do anything to stop the end of the world? I remember the Y2K scare, when at least one individual here in Sheridan, Wyo., was stocking stuff in a cave somewhere in Montana where he could wait out Armageddon. Hey, if Armageddon is going to happen, there isn’t anywhere on this planet you can go to escape it.
Just for the record, we don’t really know why the Mayan calendar – the “Long Count” – ends when it does, but it could have something to do with the end of the Mayan civilization, not our own today. And Nostradamus claimed he could see forward to the year 3700-and-something, so I don’t know how he got into the Dec. 21 business.
As for me, I’m betting that Dec. 22 will arrive right on schedule. And in the meantime, I subscribe to the philosophy of Alfred E. Neuman, which some of you may recognize from MAD Magazine:
“What, me worry?”
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plblairportals 
The hype reminds me of all the Rapture flyers I used to see pasted over every phone pole back home. It isn’t the end of the world, it is just the end of the Mayan calender. Not like we didn’t have a calendar change when they made the gregorian calendar. But it does give you a great hook for a book release…or it does me!
You’re right on that point, suteko! Speaking of the Gregorian calendar … The Powers That Be lopped 11 days off the old calendar to get the new one lined up. I read that it caused riots in England because landlords quite calmly went ahead and charged their tenants for a full month’s rent even though the “month” was shortened by 11 days …
I would’ve rioted too!
For me, I do not currently have any belief to prove nor disprove a higher deity, though I lean towards the former. Do I think Dec 21 will be the date of the heralded ‘Armageddon’? No. If that day comes and Armageddon does indeed rain down on us all, what will I do? What will any of us do. I have given little thought to the matter for two reasons: there is no decisive proof either way, and whether it happens or not, there is nothing I can do about it.
My point exactly!