2012 And Beyond: Thy Kingdom Come

I read somewhere on online
that artists, lawyers, businessmen,
and hippies
have been making their way to Chichen Itza.

I go to Mexico every year.
A few years back,
I got to go twice in the same year.
My trips to Mexico
always include time at museums and historic ruins.
I’ve been to the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City
more times than I count.
Honestly, you can spend a whole week in there
and not see it all,
not remember it all,
not take enough pictures.

I’ve been to the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon.
I’ve been to Tula.
I’ve visited the ruins in Oaxaca.

Chichen Itza is on my list.
In all honesty,
I’m a little jealous
of those who made there way down.
I hope to get there one day.

But one thing that just gets my goat
is all of this 2012 hype.
People without a clue
spread such garbage.
And even people who have somewhat of a clue
(like the History Channel)
use the wrong calendar
when discussing 2012.

And guess what?
We’re still here!
No surprise,
at least,
not for me.

Now,
I’m not an historian
and don’t have anything more
than an interest
in the ancient ruins of Mexico.
And I must admit
my interest is more Aztec than Mayan.
You can’t visit museums
as much as I have
and not learn a little something along the way.

But, alas,
even the History Channel
in at least one program
got it wrong.

What I’ve seen
is the image of the Aztec calendar used
when people discussed this 2012 stuff.
The 2012 doomsday stuff
(which I think was really stunt
to get people to buy stuff, spend money)
is based on the Mayan Calendar.

I mean,
even Google gets it wrong.
Google Mayan Calendar Long Count
and under images you get the Aztec.

And let’s get specific here.
They Mayan’s have more than one calendar:
 - The Tzolkin or Sacred Round
 - The Haab or Civil Calendar (which most resembles our the calendar we currently use)
 - The Long Count (the one inspiring all of the doomsday stuff)

The Tzolkin is know as the divine calendar.
It is called the Sacred Round or Tzolkin,
which means the distribution of days.
This is a cyclic calendar.
Using this calendar,
there are 260 days,
with 20 periods (months) of 13 days.
This used to determine religious and ceremonial events.

The Haab is a solar calendar
and has 365 days.
It is divide into 18 months with 20 days each.
It has one month that is only 5 days long.

The Long Count Calendar is  an astronomical calendar.
It was used to track longer periods of time.
The Mayas referred to time as the “universal cycle”.
Each such cycle is calculated to be 2,880,000 days
(about 7885 solar years).
The Mayans believed that the universe is destroyed
and then recreated at the start of each universal cycle.
And so here we have the belief
that inspired all of this end of the world doomsday stuff.
It’s the end of the cycle.
But the universe recreates itself after being destroyed.
It’s not the end of time.
It’s the beginning of a new era.   

The Tzolkin and Haab calendars
were combined
to create a calendar of much longer “time.”
This is how the Mayas
created the Long Count Calendar.   

OK.
Did you see
that all describing word
in the previous paragraphs?
CYCLE.
It’s not linear, folks.
Time, according to Mayan tradition and beliefs,
is CYCLIC.
It’s the end of one cycle,
but the beginning of a new cycle.
It’s the beginning of a new era.

I hope to one day visit Chichen Itza.
Not because of everything I just detailed here.
But because
this ancient stuff is just so darn interesting.

And so we have
artists, lawyers, businessmen,
and hippies
making their way to Chichen Itza.
Maybe they get it.
Maybe those people get it.
It’s the beginning of a new era.

At least,
I would hope so.

I mean,
it’s like the more civilized we’ve become
the more barbaric we have become.
We have all of this technology
and so little concern about others.
We have become a nation
that devours her children
in more ways than one,
and then when we celebrate the Dec. 12th feastday
of Our Lady of Guadalupe
we dare call the Aztecs
horrible and barbaric for human sacrifice.

It’s time, people.
It’s time.

It’s time to create that new era. . . .

. . .an era where children can go to school
and not worry about being safe.

. . .an era when having a child
and rearing a child
is considered a blessing,
a worthy and valued vocation.

. . .an era where we care for those who are ill,
when we take care of those with mental/emotional illness.

. . .an era where we actually spend time
and listen to our neighbor
and care and worry about him/her.

. . .an era when we hate less
and love more.. . .
. . .a era where we don’t label people,
but just love them
and care for them
for who they are:
Children of God.

. . .an era where we own less
(accumulate less stuff)
but share more, give more.

. . .an era where we clean not only the air,
the land and the water,
but our innermost being.

Maybe, in the end,
the ancient Mayas had it right.
It’s time, people.
It’s time.

Thy Kingdom Come.
Are you up for the challenge?

* * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * *

The Church of Google

A friend recently sent me an email about boycotting Google. Although he cleaned it up a bit, I believe it was one of those forwards that got forwarded. To tell the truth, I followed the link in the email and it made me laugh out loud. But I decided to investigate this.

First of all, let me say that I like Google. In all honestly, I would be hard pressed to follow through with such a boycott. You’re reading this blog because Google owns blogger. I YouTube a little. Youtube is owned by Google. I use Google Analytics and Google’s webmasters tools. I search primarily on Google and I also have several Google alerts.

And Google set up shop not too long ago in Michigan. In this day and age when Michigan is suffering so much economically, Google stepped into our fair state and brought some jobs. I thank God for this, and I thank the Google Guys as well. In fact, Google Ann Arbor is hiring. . . I just checked!

So, Boycott Google? Why, at this point in life, it would not only be a life-altering experience, it would mess a little bit with my sense of justice.

The reason for the boycott is a website that claims Google is God and has established a Church of Google. As I said, I followed the link and really thought the whole thing was a joke. Now, I’m the first one to say that we need to be careful about such things. I mean, if the church is sacred, then She is sacred and we ought to treat Her as such. But really, we do need to poke fun and laugh at things every now and again. Poking fun and enjoying a good laugh is not necessarily the same as sacrilege. So. . . what of this site?

I decided to do some research of my own.

TheChurchOfGoogle.org is, in fact, NOT owned by Google at all. If those suggesting we boycott Google read the fine print at the bottom of the page, they would have realized this. I debated about whether or not I should put that link in. I don't suggest anyone join the church of google or anything like that. . . But I mean, even the "Googlism" at the top of the page isn't quite the Google Logo. And even I, a non-graphic artist, can see that.

Alas, sometimes we are so quick to forward things, not realizing the harm this may cause. And to tell the truth, this is beginning to anger me. But I digress.

That website states that the Church of Google was founded by someone named MacPherson of Ontario. The domain, however, is registered to someone named Leudy. Now, I won’t list details on this blog because that would just be wrong. But a little e-investigation and one can find out all sorts of information about website owners.

For example, the domain name was purchased at GoDaddy.com. Now, all things considered, would Google buy a domain at GoDaddy?? Come on, folks. Let’s get real here.

But there are a few lessons to be learned here.

You know, we tell our kids to be careful on MySpace. We tell them to avoid chat rooms. At my house, no one clears the URLs but me, The Mom. I decide when PC cleaners are run. . . .I know where you’ve been online. I know what your doing. I’m The Mom. That’s my job.

But you know, sometimes it’s the adults who just don’t get it. We must remember that what we write in our emails can be announced to the world. Cut and Paste. Fowards. It’s just too easy. Before we really forward information about a boycott we’d better be sure we have all of our facts straight. Anything less is, in fact, less than Christian behavior.

The other thing that is a little frightening is that the person who purchased this domain name didn’t bother with a privacy certificate. Domains by Proxy is an excellent service. But she didn’t bother. Sadly, she’s probably going to get inundated with all sorts of hate mail. . .both snail mail and electronic mail. I was able to find an email address, a street address, phone number. . . .it’s just too scarey. And all I did was search. I mean, I’m not black hat or white hat (probably closer to red hat!). My point is, it’s just too easy to find private info if one isn’t careful. You don’t need to be technically gifted at all.

See what I mean?
We try to teach our kids about online safety, when we aren’t practicing it ourselves. If you’re going to buy a domain for personal use, register for privacy. If it’s for a business and you want your business info out there, make sure you register with business address and information.

And for goodness sakes, if you’re going to forward information about a boycott make sure you’re boycotting what you’re boycotting for the right reasons. Do the research. Anything less is gossip. Period.

Google isn’t god, but is an internet giant. I’m certain that Google and the Google Guys don’t need me defending them. I’m certain Google has top-notch lawyers for that.

But I will defend my faith. And my beliefs are as such that I won’t forward a forward of a forward regarding any boycott until I investigate it for myself. It’s a justice thing. It’s the moral thing. It’s the right thing. It’s the Christian thing.