Happy New Year, everyone. Looks like the world made it through another revolution around the Sun, despite Harold Camping’s careful calculations.
I have it on good faith, however, that it really is going to end in 2012. Yes, it’s more eschatological stuff, this time from the “Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar” (e.g. the Mayans). So set your clocks for December 21, 2012, and get all your unfinished business out of the way by then. I know I’m going to finish this novel and to hell with everything else. Taxes, schmaxes. What a colossal waste of time.
One thing I might do to get ready is memorize the Scrabble dictionary. If I end up in heaven with a lot of time on my hands, I don’t want to be at a disadvantage like I was this Christmas. On the other hand, that would be a pretty convincing version of hell — being in an endless Scrabble game with three other people who know every single esoteric word in the Scrabble dictionary. Of course ‘ka’ is a word! Isn’t it just too bad that it blocked you from putting ‘quiz’ on the triple word score…
I think I’ll play it safe and do the memorizing.
Looking back at 2011, I’d have to say it was a watershed year. Here are some highlights:
- I started the Gydle publishing empire. I have written more original words this year than ever before in my life.
- My world was rocked when I figured out that we are being crowdsourced by bacteria. I certainly hope yours was, too.
- My bare feet discovered that the ground is a surface that can bite back.
- I finally gave myself permission to live my lifelong dream – (the novel).
- I learned that I’m not 25 anymore thanks to a surprise sucker punch from a blood pressure monitor.
- I finally broke my jelly belly addiction. I may have to change the banner on the blog. Sugar snap peas? Carrots?
What about you? What did you do in those precious months after May 21, when the world was supposed to end? I certainly hope you made the most of it.
In the meantime, since I’m clearly too late for any preventive measures, before you go to bed tonight, take a vitamin B supplement and an advil. It might help with tomorrow’s hangover, according to a press release from the Loyola University Medical System.
And if the world is spinning because you drank too much? Here’s why.
On a final note in this final hour of the penultimate year of human existence, I’d like to thank all of you for coming here. Thanks for your attention and support. Thanks for your comments, your suggestions, your ideas. Thanks for making all my efforts so very worthwhile. Thanks for joining me in my many-flavored world and for making it so much more interesting!
Hi Mary. May your new year, however long, be one of achievement, with time taken to do those things that you really enjoy.
December 21st? Perhaps that will eliminate the sad circus of materialism and indulgence that the festive season has become for so many. No way! We’ll be holding “Last Fling” celebrations before the coming cataclysm, but without the need for all those unwanted gifts. Self-indulgence will be in full swing. Cynical, not me!
An even worse prospect is that the world may not end. Seven billion homo sapiens and ever increasing populations, all competing for use of the planet’s resources; the multitudes in developing countries having expectations of living standards similar to those in affluent nations.
How am I able to be so cheerful and optimistic at the beginning of a new year? I know that as problems accrue, we will be forced to tackle them and, in doing so, we will gain new understandings that will advance our societies and place less stress on the world in which we live. The alternative is that we lose, but then none of us is going to live forever (living forever, irrespective of life’s quality, would be my definition of hell).
I recommend chocolate (dark) in lieu of jelly beans, depending upon the severity of that blood pressure problem, and lots more activity in minimalist shoes. To quote from another blog: blessed are they that are flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape. My outlook on life.
Les – I have to agree with you on the overindulgence and overspending and overpopulation … I was thinking as I flew back over the Atlantic about all the jet fuel consumed every day. This cannot continue. I wonder also about our ability to come up with new solutions. Will we really reach the “singularity” as Ray Kurzweil claims, and extend human life indefinitely? neuroprostheses and genetic engineering to keep us going forever? Interesting but scary prospect.
Dark chocolate is a definite possibility. The blood pressure appears to be under control, and dark chocolate is a good source of magnesium, AND I am living in Switzerland!! Why not!
Thanks for reading and commenting, and I wish you a wonderful new year, too.