This is the End
6:11 a.m. December 21st, 2012 : the Mayan Calendar comes to an end.
Fire and brimstone? The Earth's poles reverse? Every volcano on the planet erupts?
With less than 8 hours to go, I'm starting to feel a little skeptical. (Especially considering the Mayans never took leap-year into account, and the fact that Australia has already made it past the Doomsday Deadline without so much as an explosion.) I'm not sure I ever truly believed the world would end tomorrow, but for the last 5 years of my life I've always kept the date in the back of my mind. A due date of sorts, a reminder to live my life as if there wasn't much time left, to help me keep every day precious and to recognize the fleeting beauty of everything around me. And though the world may not end tomorrow, nor for another thousand years, it most certainly will end. More importantly, my world will end; we all end. So where's the harm in living each day as if it could be our last; once a day is over, we never get it back. Worlds that we create in our minds, dreams, the relationships we build and plans we create are beginning and ending all the time.
I'm a little upset with how unceremonious this 'last night of the World' has been for me, given how often I've thought about this date, and wondered where I'd be. I had grand intentions of being somewhere in the wilderness surrounded by all my favourite people, equipped with crossbows, canned goods, and everything else we'd need to start a brand new colony. Mostly in fun, but having everything and everyone I need to carry on packed into one little space would be a powerful experience.
It seems fitting that in less than two weeks I'll be starting a new job. An actual 9-5 job. I've never had one of those before. So in a way, my world of freelance freedom is coming to an end, and a brave new world of being a 'working man' begins. The life I've been living will become a memory, and I'll never quite get it back, not the way it's been.
So, if what my gut tells me is true, the world will carry on tomorrow morning. Just another day.
But there'll never be another day like it.