Excuse Me, I Was Promised A Hand basket

The end is near! And has been since we humans have been explaining the cosmos away via deities of varying malice and temperaments. Which, as near as I can tell went hand with the development of agriculture.

You have to wonder if there is a collective end though, at least I do. Armageddon is all the rage, which shouldn’t really be a surprise after the fun the world had when the year 2000 was coming up on us. I kind of miss that Y2K frenzy. I’m a fan of all the learning channels, but I’ve noticed and irritating trend of the doomsday shows in heavy rotation.

But, lucky for us, there are many doomsday scenarios for us to worry over. They Mayan calendar ends in 2012, which apparently many people interpret as time ending rather than the Mayans coming to the inevitable conclusion that their calendar is going to have to either end or keep going and going. “Why project our calendar more than 2000 years ahead?. Does that make sense to anyone else? Let’s go sacrifice something!”

So, 2012 is the new Y2k. I think it ends December 20th(ish).

How far ahead do historians really expect ancient calendars to go? One would think that a cut off line is more or less a necessity. For all we know the calendar not going past 2012 could be an arbitrary result of some ancient practicality.

What I love is how centered we are on ourselves. Our definition of “the world” ending usually equates to humans being wiped out…probably because of something humans did.

But, if your trust in humanity is just so thorough you can’t entertain the wonderfully ironic notion that we will be our own undoing, there’s plenty of other ways for the world to still end!

I’m kind of a romantic. The idea of our planet having an energy or inner life force seems like a thing of fiction, but I like it. So the notion that the earth could possibly be cleansing itself via earthquakes, tornados, floods, wildfires, tsunamis, etc is really appealing.

I've noticed this “weather” thing has been around for awhile and the natural cycling patterns might be so complex and long lasting we might not even be observing what we think we are.

If the Gaia thing isn't doing it for you consider the current global climate! How many wars are going on? How many violent deaths are occurring daily? And in front of who?

And if you’re still not happy with your world ending choices, I’m afraid your last option is as classic as it gets—Jesus coming back, to both love and judge you. Repent—or else!