Thursday, Dec. 20 2012 4:23PM
We’re still here (I hope)
By John Beaudoin
jbeaudoin@lsjournal.com
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ReprintI’ve heard this end of the world stuff before.
Fire and brimstone. Making amends with God. Maxing out your credit cards.
This time, of course, it is supposed to be for real.
The Mayan calendar is over. Done. Dec. 21, 2012, at some point in the afternoon, we will cease to exist.
The timing couldn’t be worse, either.
On Thursday night, I had to sit through a Lee’s Summit City Council meeting.
So much for having an end-of-the-world party.
People were still on Facebook and other social media websites debating God, guns and other issues instead of just kicking back, opening up a cold one and watching the world end.
I just paid a few bills this week, too. Who’s the real sucker here?
Each generation, it seems, isn’t immune to the end of days nonsense.
I remember having some discussions back in the 1990s about the end of the world as it pertained to a Nostradamus prediction on war, famine, the sun exploding…something like that.
It seems that time came and went without incident. I mean, we did have the Monica Lewinsky hearings with Bill Clinton. Some would argue the world was ending at that point.
Then we had the Y2K scare of 1999. Now that was a blast.
Everyone was stalking up on water, canned goods, shotguns and anti-zombie remedies just in case some IT guy forgot to make our computers compatible for the year 2000.
Somehow, we all lived through that.
And now, some say (and some experts would refute) that the Mayan calendar ends today. And with it, some giant black hole or other catastrophe will end life on the planet Earth as we know it.
I certainly hope we survive whatever the Winter Solstice has brewing for us because I have a big Christmas planned for my 2-year-old and I would hate to think that all that time spent shopping is going for naught.
Happy 12-21-12 everyone.
If we don’t make it, hopefully this column will stand as proof we were actually here.
And the end of the world may have a positive spin as well: the politicians can use it to claim victory for never reaching the Fiscal Cliff.
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