Maybe we can learn what our ancestors were feeling when the sun seemed to be abandoning them? The literal end of the world? Why was it the end? The sun was the real god of the natural world. The bringer of light, of warming, the bringer of migrating animals, later the crops that either burnt or soaked in the mud was all powerful, and to be feared. When the grace of the sun began to shorten after the 21st of June, the sun was losing it's war against the darkness, and the hairless apes were frightened (unless they were old enough to know that, Yes Virginia, the Sun Will Be Back). The celebration of the 21st - and the movements of the sun were the calendar. The Mynas, Celts, the Cahokia and the Egyptians all expended huge amounts of labor and resource to build giant monuments used to track the almighty sun.
The 21st was the day the sun was the weakest. It rose late, and disappeared quickly - and on the third day - it rose again. Resurrection. Beginning a new era! A new year, if you will?
And another lesson that can be taken away is that the end of the world has been predicted for just about every year, and every day that I've been alive. A lot of money can be made whipping up the hysteria. Remember "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey? There's been about 59 calls for the Rapture to have happened between 2000 and yesterday. How about Y2K? Thing is, even Isaac Newton was in on the Apocalypse Now game - having decoded the lineage of the Bible to figure out the date. If the alchemist who 'discovered' gravity was wrong, it's amazing that folks are still trying to get it right?
There's obviously a lot of money you can make writing books and selling expiring MRE's to people when you whip it up and put it in a two minute local news package. The logic never made sense to me. For what are you prepping for if there isn't going to be a planet - or you think you're going to get beamed out by Jesus on RaptureDay? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to max out your credit cards on liquor and booze instead of ammo? Now, prepping for a natural disaster makes sense - just ask everyone on the East Coast if they think being prepared with some batteries and a couple extra can goods is a good idea or just regulated to the crazy nut job neighbor who has a camouflage painted Chevy Suburban in his driveway?
There was a survey not to long ago - maybe it was in the US Census - maybe it was something for the PEW people to do in-between elections - but they asked Americans if the world would end in their lifetime... here, let me google that...
Twenty-two percent of Americans think the world will end in their lifetime. According to a recent Reuters poll, nearly 15 percent of people worldwide agree. The numbers range from 6 percent in France to 22 percent in Turkey and the U.S.[source]
(and 10% think the apocalypse is coming this year) [source]Here's the real truth. The End of the World WILL occur - in your lifetime.
Are you ready for this? It's a very hard truth...
The End of the World - simply - is the day you die. Kind of poetic, don't you think?
Happy Solstice, Every One.
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
ReplyDeleteMark 13:32