Twenty twelve, end of the Mayan calendar and according to some the end of everything as we know it. Scary thought ain’t it? For what it’s worth here’s my curmudgeonly take on it. Enjoy!
It was a long time ago (that should be obvious to the most casual observer) and the Maya had grown to a sprawling empire heavily engaged in commerce and trying very hard to feed their masses. When you are part of a society in decline and it’s getting harder to get an omelet at the local hole in the wall diner does it matter to you if the calendar only goes several thousand years into the future? Just a wild guess here folks but I’m thinking probably not. Can you imagine a lot of Maya thinking “OK all you government politicians, let’s shut down a bunch of less needed bureaucracies”? And the politicians saying “name one”. Response, “how about the bureau of calendar development ‘cuz they’ve got it worked out a long time into the future and if we disappear as a culture it’ll all be rhetorical anyway”.
If back then you were a member of the “bureau of calendar development” and your team got so far as 2012, you would have reason to be really proud. But when the department gets shut down because of budget cuts, well guess what – that’s when the calendar stops.
Bet they didn’t have unemployment back then and I suspect none of the “bureau of calendar development” guys were willing to continue adding to the calendar for the sheer pleasure of it. And in spite of whatever efforts Mayan society as a whole made, it’s obvious they didn’t quite succeed.
So that’s my take. The calendar stops during 2012 because that’s as far as they got before Mayan civilization as they came to recognize it ceased.
But I gotta wonder if someone provided the Maya with a calendar that told when their empire would cease? Possibly people from the sky?
ET phone home!
Happy New Year everyone and here’s hoping y’all had an exceptional end to 2011. Wow, 2012 underway and to imagine around age 10 (circa 1957) I believed being alive to see a new century wouldn’t happen for me. Twelve years into the new century it’s time to admit I was wrong (oops – so embarrassing).
Here we are at day three working on four of the new year and the biggest event of the year thus far was the “no pain migraine” I experienced early this afternoon. Yeah I know it sounds contradictory but they exist. I’m not the person to explain them but any search engine will provide plenty of stuff to explore and learn from.
My particular type is entirely visual and usually starts in my peripheral field of vision. Imagine looking down into the snake pit in whichever Indiana Jones movie it was and all the writhing snakes are at the edges of your field of vision. Yes, it is kinda weird but I’ve experienced them long as I remember and learned what they are only a few years back. Depending on severity they can close in on the field of vision and sometimes even produce colors. When at that level they can be quite distracting, in other words driving and the like may not be advisable.
Today was nothing close to that. It was about 15 minutes in duration, entirely in the right eye and went almost unnoticed. I was sitting at the computer playing a game of 500 Rummy and mistook a Jack for a Queen when I realized it was happening. I sat back with eyes closed for a few minutes and let the mind wander. That did it. The rest of the Rummy game was played with a vengeance and Bilbo (the computer opponent) was once again humiliated.
Then there was the rest of the afternoon excitement. New Years Day we wandered into the local Harbor Freight store with 25% off coupon in hand and Janice latched onto an amazing buy on a 6X8 foot greenhouse. Since it ain’t getting assembled until sometime in March it made sense to open the box and inventory everything against the parts list. Just in case. No missing pieces.
Y’know – sometimes a “no pain migraine” doesn’t seem all that bad.
