MMXII -- The Last Judgment?

When I was a little girl, I lived next door to a family who belonged to a particular religious sect who were always predicting the imminent end of the world. I lived in terror for years, and then finally I got angry. I'm not very patient with ignorance, and to me that prediction was the height of ignorance. And now -- once again -- the "buzz" is about the Mayan calender predicting 2012 as the end of the world. That may be true, but not in the sense that most people think.

"The Maya messengers, reknowned for their architectural, artistic, mathematical and scientific achievements, left a calling card as a series of super-human sized stone monuments and pyramids with precise calendrical computations. Planted with great intention, these dates were left to ensure that future generations would be alerted to the coming end point of this great 26,000 year cycle. A cycle which corresponds also to a 26,000 year relationship of our Sun orbiting Alcyone, the central star of the 7 Sisters Pleiades constellation. According to the Maya, the "future" which lies beyond this end date is literally "a new world age" - "a new creation." ... Pacal Votan, Mayan Prophet

I believe 2012 will actually be the beginning of a long-awaited new age, an age of intelligence, knowledge, enlightenment, awareness, and the end of ignorance. It is long overdue. In his famous speech in 1942, during the Second World War, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said:

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

The population of the world is predicted to reach 7 billion people in October 2012. Our Earth cannot sustain this many people, if we do not learn to take care of our planet and each other. Our planet will shuck us off like an unwanted virus, and the Earth will begin to heal again.

The other day on our local TV newscast, a nutritionist was giving examples of which fish to eat that was the lowest in mercury, and which to eat only once a week because the mercury content was too high. Tuna is very high in mercury, and it is recommended we eat it only once a week. How sick is that. What have we done? But more importantly, what can we do to stop this runaway train before we are all destroyed by it? The environmental movement began in earnest during the 1970s. That was the beginning of awareness. We now have knowledge of the damage we have been doing to our planet Earth, and we have knowledge of what we can do to save it from any more damage. I'm pleased that the generation of Phinnaeus and Marigold is aware, and they live by a different environmental doctrine than my parents' generation.

"Oma...! Don't throw bottle that in the garbage...! Aren't you going to recycle that...?"

I need a gentle reminder every once in a while.

I don't think anyone should be afraid of the year 2012. I think it will be the end of the beginning.