Fire and ice and lasers
There are three schools of thought about today. Some people flinch against some impending catastrophe where we all die a lot. Others have been meditating all year in anticipation of ascending to the fifth dimension or other various kinds of laser lotus malarkey. Then there are the people who believe deeply and fully that today will provide a temporal bridge between Thursday and Saturday. I’m of the third type, myself.
But it could be the end of the world, you know.
When I was eighteen I swore I’d plan a big party in a cave somewhere on this date. Even then, however naive I was (and oh, I was!), this would have been a joke. But I think I thought at the time that future me would really go through with it, and maybe I would. But I’m not doing that, so I guess I wouldn’t after all. It’s not worth the trouble just to thumb my nose at people who largely don’t affect me anyway.
But it could end today. It could. Although this process will have already started yesterday in Australia, come to think of it.
As 1999 flipped over to 2000 I was in Reginald’s bed. He said that the moment when everyone was holding their breath, mine stopped too. One of the little perks of being a perpetual orgasm machine is that magical climactic timing very often works out. It is a sweet memory, though. It was before we were utterly swallowed by dysfunction. That was when still laughed together, and he called me the girl with the rocket launcher eyes. Before our little world decayed, then finally ended.
Dr. Manhattan says that nothing ever ends, but in exactly the same way everything ends, and the world can end today. I promise you. We can make it end. In fact, we may be the only force that can.
What if, on this day when urban legends and misinformation stir up expectations for old things to pass away, we all rode on that just enough to really change things and remake the world? Our world is currently more than a little dysfunctional, you may have noticed. What if we decided that we have new priorities: caring for one another, respecting love and compassion more than power and greed, forgiving our enemies, family, friends, and ourselves, and letting go of fear and prejudice… really just being truly excellent to each other? These priority shifts could be achieved in a day if we really wanted them to, couldn’t they?
Why can’t today be the end of a world where murder and rape and exploitation and the myriad other fucked up shit we humans come up with are normal? Why can’t we choose today to stop being assholes to each other for good and all? Why can’t it be the beginning of getting really serious about cooperation and mutual acceptance and problem solving?
Is it because then all the people who are wrong would get all smug and say “See? I and the Mayans told you everything was going to change on December 21, 2012, and it totally did!” Is that why? Because once the future gets here we’re not really going to be interested in being all petty like that, you know.
I love this so much! Thank you for making it!
Yeah, this is pretty awesome. Every day is really a choice about the kind of people we want to be and the kind of world we want to live in.
Of course the little misanthrope who lives in the hidden places of my heart (he believes in nuzing, Lebovski, nuzing) is always tempted to add, “But, you’ll never get rid of all of the assholes who want more than everyone else and are willing to stab you in the back to get it.”
See? I tried to shut him up, but here he is.
I’ve seen a friend or two post a similiar, “let’s make a change, and end certain things” type thing. I couldn’t agree more, and appreciate how you so eloquently put a positive spin on a day of dread or humor.
Reid Mihalko says, “Be the change you want to see in the bedroom,” but there’s no reason that we can’t apply that to the rest of our lives. Be the change you want to see in the world. Be excellent to each other.
Apropos of very little, someone at a play party last night told me about The Sexy Data Tango by Voltaire and I thought, “QP needs to see this.”
Taking the holidays off? Well, okay.
Next Tuesday, I hope?