Friday, December 21, 2012

A year in review

It’s a typical practice around the new year to examine the year we are leaving behind.  Sometimes it’s worthwhile to examine any personal gains or losses, or to assess a resolution made at this time last year.  Sometimes, it’s interesting to wonder what, if anything, from this year was truly memorable.  Did anything happen that will live in your mind, or the mind of the country, for years to come?  

Earlier this year, I wrote a column about the coincidental fact that both the Oreo cookie and the Girl Scouts of America turned 100 in the same month.  Since that time I couldn’t help but notice whenever I came across another mention of a noteworthy anniversary.  To my surprise, there were plenty, both of products and events.  Not only was 1912 the founding year of the Oreo and Girl Scouts, but also of L.L. Bean and Paramount pictures, all products and institutions that are still impacting modern life.  One hundred years ago, along with the opening of the great Fenway Park in Boston, the Beverly Hills hotel opened its doors for the first time.  On a darker side, 1912 was the year the Titanic sank and also marked the largest volcanic eruption in the 20th century with the eruption of the volcano Novarupta in Alaska, producing 30 times more ash than the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Centennial anniversaries aren’t the only ones to be marked this year.  One hundred and fifty years ago the Morrill Act was signed into law, creating the land grant college system, which was an important milestone in creating affordable higher education for young Americans.  One hundred and fifty years ago, our country fought against each other at the Battle of Antietam, yet we were also optimistic enough to pass the Homestead Act, which was very significant in shaping much of our country.

There were a number of 50th anniversaries this year as well.  Close to home, this year marked a half-century for the Space Needle, as well as the countrywide networks of KoA’s.  Not to be forgotten is the little orange goldfish cracker, of which children everywhere, my daughter included, have been enjoying for the last 50 years.  

As I gathered this list, it made me wonder, what made people in our past so industrious?  I’ve spent time in other cultures where an innocuous church across the street can be 500 years old.  In times like that, I’ve felt that America is a baby.  But here is proof that things we create in America can last.  And while maybe the Oreo or the Space Needle doesn’t have such a concrete tie to history that a centuries-old church does, we can still celebrate the spirit of our industrious ancestors who came to this country looking to make things that would last for generations.  

In our modern world of immediate satisfaction and viral communication, it might be assumed that everything might last forever.  But among all the chaos, will there be anything worthwhile?  Are we short-changing our creative selves by investing so much time into immediate gratification?

One hundred years isn’t as long as it sounds.  One hundred years ago my great-grandmother had just arrived in this country, looking for a better life.  One hundred years from now, maybe my great-grandchildren will look back on 2012 and be amazed that I was around for such a year, as I have often felt about my great-grandmother.  If we had a crystal ball, would we be surprised by the things that are remembered 100 years from now?  Will it only be remembered as a year where too many innocent lives were unfairly taken from us, or will there be something else--anything, please,--that will last?

Thinking about these things that have lasted for so long makes me feel just how enduring some things can be, and also how short the years really are.  Our time here may be short, but here is proof that the time we do have can be enduring.  Here’s to another memorable year.  

Previously published in "The Star," Grand Coulee, Washington.  December 21, 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

One ending is another beginning

This year, in the midst of a typically festive holiday season is what many have considered to be a very auspicious date.  December 21, 2012 does not simply signify the winter solstice, but also a very important calendar day in the ancient culture of the Mayans.  I’m referring, of course, to what many in popular media have referred to as Doomsday, the Apocalypse, or simply, the End of the World.

A chuckle or two at this thought is not completely out of line.  Imagining the end of the world occurring in simply a matter of days could be slightly comical.  But many around the world have considered this date, if not the ultimate End, at least something worth marking.  

For some time, this date has loomed in the future as some kind of prophesy, a tip from an ancient culture that something fishy was coming, and that it would happen on a precise day.  Looking for secret knowledge from ancient cultures is a popular theme.  It has been assumed that ancient peoples were more in touch with the land and Mother Earth, and therefore more receptive to information regarding wisdom or prophesies.  

While I’m skeptical about ancient cultures prophesizing far into the future, I do believe they attained wisdom and knowledge in ways modern society doesn’t anymore and I do believe these cultures still have much to teach us.  To name just one such intriguing idea, I find it fascinating the way such separate cultures around the globe and across time used what tools they had to calculate such abstract ideas as the calendar.  After all, what practical good does a long-term calendar hold for such people, besides spiritual or intellectual wisdom?  

Today we have the luxury of everyone on Earth using the same method of marking time.  But in ancient cultures, this wasn’t the case and the way these cultures marked cycles of time varied greatly.  The Maya of Mesoamerica had a number of different cycle levels, each one encompassing the ones before it.  Their longest cycle, the baktun, was 394 years and they wrapped each baktun into a grouping of 13, a significant number in their culture.  The current “Great Cycle” of 13 baktuns is coming to an end this December 21st.  

I recently saw an advertisement at a popular outdoors store for a preparedness class for the coming “Zombie Apocalypse” that was sure to occur following this important Mayan date.  I originally thought this great fodder for a column about a prophesy of the end of the world, but the more research I did on the Mayan calendar and what this date actually signified piqued my interest in a different way.  

Proof that the phenomenon this “end date” has created is the involvement of NASA in their attempt to debunk the idea that an astronomical cataclysm is headed toward Earth.  And while I may think it intriguing, and maybe a tad funny, many around the world are taking this calendar date very seriously, and some are quite fearful.  As one NASA official put it, if we put the fear factor aside, there is another real concern that this looming date has brought forth: a lack of regard for science education and skeptical thinking in our schools.  

The spreading of fear of this date is not unlike the Y2K fears that ultimately amounted to nothing more than hype.  And while it may be great cocktail party conversation to talk about how to prepare for the end of the world, it is perhaps more productive to learn about what this date really meant to that culture, and what, if anything, it might mean to ours.  Learning to think outside the box of fear is a skill that is, apparently, learned.

Most experts now agree that next week will mark an important milestone in a very ancient calendar system, but it doesn’t signify a prediction of the end of the world.  Instead, it would likely have indicated a time of great celebration, and maybe a time of contemplation as well.  This is not unlike how many typical celebrate our modern holiday season, and I hope this year we continue to have cause for significant contemplation and celebration.

Previously published in "The Star," Grand Coulee, Washington. December 12, 2012