I grew up in a small Southern Baptist church where the impending end of the world was prophesied every other year. I remember when the planets lined up in 1977 and that was supposed to be an End-Times sign. The Bible was repeatedly interpretted out of time and context to support whatever latest trend appeared as the newest sign of the coming End of the World, even if such signs were simply deciding that “a mighty roar across the desert” was certainly the popularity of motorcycles.
As a fan of prophecy myself, I watched the End of Time occur with Y2K in the 2000-2001 time frame, as the end of how our computers recorded time was quickly re-worked to prevent elevators and gas pumps from glitches due to a sudden turning of the clock back to the early 1900’s.
As for 2012, I’ve always loved these “Mayan prophecies.” Will our machines turn against us on the Winter Solstice ( December 21) of 2012? Hey, haven’t they already? How many of us live by our Blackberries (even President Obama), check our email 30 seconds after our feet hit the floor in the mornings and 30 seconds before we hop in bed at night, and stay slaves to our social networks, cell phones, and customers’ emails at least 18 hours a day if not more? Haven’t we already let our machines take over our lives?
Yet there’s a certain fanatically fun hype that we’ll see over the next few years as publishers put out more and more books on 2012 (one of the few selling topics in today’s market), websites use the fear-factor to sell survival gear, and…well…actually most of the hype will be about selling us something via our fears, whether it’s goods, services, or even religion.
Every year, we gather on New Year’s Eve and celebrate the end of the old year and the coming new year. We put our intentions and resolutions out there for the new year and try to renew and regenerate and rejuvenate as we mark the calendar and step over into the next year. It’s a superb time for transforming ourselves into the better people we want to be, for fulfilling our potential.
To me, that’s what 2012 is about: the End of an Age and the beginning of a new age, on a global level rather than a personal New Year’s Day. Though there are possibilities of natural disasters, wars, and various world-wide problems, there always have been those possibilities and always will be. That’s all part of Nature and the whole Circle of Life that is our physical universe.
Whether you make 2012 about the END of an old way of life or the BEGINNING of a wonderful new phase all depends on the reality you wish to create. Is it better for us to honor our fears and focus on making 2012 a time of suffering and disaster or to honor our hopes and make it the start of renewal and regeneration for the next era of our world?
So my advice? Prepare for 2012 just as you would for New Year’s Eve and celebrate what we leave behind and where we can go from here.
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