In Love With The Apocalypse

Why do we fall in love with an apocalypse? Do we think that if we know about it ahead of time we can prepare or- surprise- even cheat it? Do we think that if we are informed we will be able to party-hearty (or is it -hardy?) when the time comes? Or is it just so that when it doesn’t happen we can look at the other silly ones who REALLY believed it?

Apocalyptic thinking is part and parcel of being human. Just in my lifetime- quite short in the LONG scheme of things- we have had nuclear holocaust threats, the Late Great Planet Earth threats, Y2K threats, to name but the three most famous. People went scurrying off to build bomb shelters, pray hard or store up water while their computers got ready to shut down.

So, just in case you hadn’t noticed, we are now in the long (366-day) countdown to the end of the world. Again. Dec 21, 2012, according to the current crop of apocalyptic- experts in the Mayan region, will be it. The extensive, millenia-long Mayan calendar will end. All the cycles will come to an end as the sun completes its next and final sojourn through the sky.

Wait. You mean the sun doesn’t travel around the sky like the Mayans no doubt believed? You mean the calendar can start over, just like ours does every Dec. 31/Jan 1?

Darn. Just when I thought I had found a use for all those old Y2K bottles of water.