Not with a bang or a whimper

As I write this, it is now 2:20 on the morning of Friday December 21, 2012 in Tokyo and as far as I can tell from the news reports, it’s still there.  So much for the Doomsday predictions the world will end midnight Friday December 21, 2012.  Of course, like all these predictions, nobody ever mentions a time zone, so perhaps I’m writing this prematurely and it will happen midnight Eastern time, or some such thing.

In “Who to believe?” of December 18, I promised I wouldn’t say “I told you so” when life carried on, but … .

How many times over the years have we heard these Doomsday predictions?  How many times have we heard some religious fanatic tell us he has deciphered the clues in the Bible, then state categorically the world will end August 32, or some such thing, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon? How many times have we also seen these people  come up with excuses, such as “I made a mistake in my calculations,” or other reasons even more fantastic than their view of the End of Everything when life goes on?

Many people believe Doomsday will coincide with the return of Jesus.  I’m not a religious scholar, so I can’t argue for or against that possibility, but I am aware the Bible does state that no man may know when the Lord will return.  Given that statement from the Bible, I would suggest that these religious groups that make Doomsday predictions are attempting to place themselves above God.

Yes, the world will probably end some day, but I doubt it’s going to happen this weekend.  So if you were using the end of the Mayan calendar as an excuse not to do any Christmas shopping, guess what?  You’re gonna find the mall very, very crowded on Saturday.

Enjoy your week and remember to hug an artist – we need love (and Christmas presents) too.

Cat.

Answer me this

According to some doomsday theorists, the end of the world is less than three months away – December 21, 2012 to be precise.  That is the date on which the Mayan long calendar ends.  I have several questions on this theory, which I’m going to ask and, if I’m doing my job properly, you’ll have questions as well.

First, how do we know the Mayan cuneiforms have been translated properly?  Is there some sort of western hemisphere version of the Rosetta stone?  These people who are touted as being Mayan “experts” – how do we know for sure?  Is there some sort of exam you take and if you pass it you can call yourself a Mayan expert? There are no Mayans to test you.

Now, let’s move on to the calendar and the theories themselves.  First, I’ve written some of this before, but it still applies.  Can anyone give me one single reason why the Mayan long calendar wouldn’t act the same as our Gregorian calendar and simply start over?  This is what an “expert” interviewed by the Toronto Star a couple of years ago believes will happen. Our calendar ends with December 31.  Does the world end on December 31?   No.  The sun comes up the next day, January 1, and things carry on as usual.  Why wouldn’t this also apply to the Mayan calendar?  If we accept these theories for a moment (I don’t – I believe the calendar will just start over) I have one more question.  You say the world will end with December 21, 2012.  What time zone?

I know that some people put great faith in this calendar and the fact it ends just before Christmas this year.  Couple more questions: Nobody else has successfully predicted the end of the world, so why should the Mayans do any better?   And, if the Mayans were so great at predicting events, how come they couldn’t predict the fact they’d all die off?  They’re all dead, so why should we put any great stock in their end of the world prediction?  If they’re wrong, we certainly can’t turn to them and say “you screwed up”, can we?

I read an article in one of the Toronto papers several months ago that said archeologists had discovered a room at one of the Mayan ruins that indicated that their mathematicians didn’t believe the world would end.  Again, if the translation is correct, this would lend credence to my statement the calendar will just start over.

And one final question: What are you going to do in December: plan for Christmas, or plan for the end of the world?

Enjoy your day and remember to hug an artist – we need love too.

Cat.

Rushing things

Canadian Thanksgiving is about two weeks away on the weekend of October 6 -8 this year.  Yes, we celebrate the way Americans do, with too much food and football on the tube.

Hallowe-en is about a month away.

The proximity of these two holidays makes for some interesting sights in stores right now here in Canada.  The paperboard cutouts of turkeys and the fake autumn leaves are fighting for space with the paperboard cutouts of black cats and the plastic skeletons on the shelves.

What is it about some retail outlets that they rush the seasons?  I haven’t seen it myself, but I did hear a news commentator saying that he’d seen Hallowe’en stuff on store shelves before Labour Day.  I mean, c’mon.  They’re still pushing the “back to school” stuff and they’ve already got the Hallowe’en stuff out?  This is something I just don’t understand.  If you’re a parent, you know there is no point in buying your child a costume before Labour Day because the kid’s going to change their mind at least five times between early September and the end of October.  Same thing with buying the goodies to hand out.  They’ll be stale by Hallowe’en if you buy them now, that is if they don’t get eaten in the meantime.

And, if this is a typical year, many stores, once they remove the Thanksgiving displays, will replace them with Christmas stuff. Definitely right after Hallowe’en if not immediately. My personal view, especially with Christmas, is that since people are inundated with Christmas advertising for at least six weeks, once Christmas actually arrives, people have become insulated against  what should be a joyous time of year.

Am I the only one who feels merchants push things too much; that they rush to get the next season’s or occasion’s products on display?  I know from past observation that shortly after  New Year’s, they will have the Valentine’s Day displays up; and about February 16 will have the paper shamrocks out for St Patrick’s Day.  It may help boost the bottom line for the merchants, but do their patrons end up suffering from festive overload and just don’t care when the day actually arrives?

Of course, if you believe the stories surrounding the Mayan long calendar, there won’t be a Christmas anyway.  But I’m am optimist.  All that will happen is the calendar will start over, just as does ours every January 1.

Enjoy your day and remember to hug an artist – we need love too.

Cat.