Does this date have any meaning to you? I had no idea there was any significance to this date at all until last night. Mike and I were downstairs and he casually brings up "2012." In response to the blank stare on my face, he started to question whether I even knew what he was talking about... um, nope. So, he
kindly began to explain to me how the Mayans stopped the calendar on December 21, 2012... blah, blah, blah... the sun is going to throw these freaky death flares that will creep into our atmosphere through some hole in the Earth's magnetic field and knock out the entire power grid for the whole world for like four to six years... or something like that (or maybe not even close... that is what I heard). There are these hidden bunkers that the government is building that are ten stories tall under the airport in Denver, and unless you have a bazillion dollars or work for the government, you will be screwed. I told him I didn't believe in that stuff and I choose not to even think about it. But the
funny thing about how the mind works, you can't really choose what you don't want to think about.
In fact, not wanting to think about it makes it the
only thing you can think about. After he said that our family would die of starvation in two years, I started to think about nothing BUT that. I was watching Modern Family (and especially loved the half-episode at the end with Phil and his sweatshirt because it just so happened that I was wearing
this in sashimi... nice, I know) and in my head, I was calculating how many cans of green beans I needed to buy to prepare ourselves for a six-year power outage. In case you are wondering, it is about 8,000. Stupid, stupid sun flares. Thanks, Mike. Thank you for filling my brain with useless worrying. grr...
So, what are your thoughts?? Watch Jesse Ventura
explain it all...
Oh Lord girl. I have been worried about this for ages. I am convinced the world will be ending. Whatever you do, don't read One Second After by William Fortchem (sp?). Really, don't do that. It is a whole other kind of scary.
ReplyDeleteI know what you're talking about but I've never looked it up to learn more, never engaged in conversation about it and choose to remain blissfully ignorant. Josh is incredibly interested in the collapse of civilizations and apocalypses-has studied the history and reads fiction related (The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Collapse by Jared Diamond) but he's never talked much about 2012 with me because I think he knows I don't care to know. If the world blows up, well, all the more reason I should keep such knowledge out of my brain and spend my last days happy as opposed to sad or stressed. Who wants to live in a bunker? I need daylight. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI love that you can match match with Phil's girl sweatshirt! :)
My view is that over the last 10,000 years there have been thousands of predictions about the end of the world. So far all of them have been wrong. That's not a very good percentage! These predictions have been made by some of the most intelligent people ever and they were still wrong. Now the Mayans may be correct. A broken clock is correct twice a day, after all. But, they weren't smart enough to keep from becoming extinct so I'm not too concerned about their end of the world predictions! It could be that their calendar (which was much different from ours) used a numbering system that only went up to the year 2012. I don't see myself worrying too much about the predictions of a civilization that couldn't save itself from extinction with a limited numbering system that probably didn't have a number or symbol for the year 2013!
ReplyDeleteAfter thinking about this for WAY too long, I've decided that the Mayans probably got tired of writing out calendars and decided that we could probably figure out how to do it after following their lead for thousands of years. I'm not worried about it... I don't believe in the end of the world. BUT, should some scary solar flare strike our power grid and leave us without electricity for six years, I shall become Amish. At least I would be able to quit my job then, right?
ReplyDeleteA guy I work with talks about 2012 ALL THE TIME. We bring it up as much as possible now.
ReplyDeleteHappy B-day and you are CRAY CRAY for doing the polar bear plunge! It looked soooooooooo cold.
I could just see Mike with a beard and no mustache in all black. Better make it Mennonite instead!
ReplyDeleteOh no!!! That stuff just freaks me out! I just can't think about it! It will drive me insane!
ReplyDeleteYou're pretty close, Shannon. Scott and I went to the Mayan Ruins in Chichen Itza during our trip to Cancun last summer. The tour guide told us that the Mayans did not predict the end of the world. They based their calendars on a cycle. I forget what the cycle was of, but it whatever it was ends on 12-21-12, and then starts over. The Mayans didn't continue their calendar because they knew they would be able to "start over." The guide said that people have taken this to mean that the world is going to end because it makes a sensational story, but no one who really studies and understands the Mayan civilization believes that to be true.
ReplyDeleteThat put my mind at ease!