I have been thinking about the short and long of the Mayan calendar.
The calendar ends in December of 2012,
so people are cashing in with books and movies
about the end of the world
at that time.
Working with hospice patients,
I'm familiar with the energy
that comes with this way of thinking.
If I have two years (or less) to live
what do I need to get done?
What do I need to say to people?
What do I need to learn, to forgive, to resolve?
It is a good and healthy thing
to live with short term deadlines.
Motivates us to get moving,
to do the things that we keep putting off
for uncounted tomorrows.
But I'm also intrigued with the LONG
of the Mayan calendar.
In our culture it is unheard of
to plan ten years ahead,
much less 5000 years.
If I make a new calendar
not for this month or this year
or this decade or this hundred years...
but for the next 5000 years,
what sort of planning does THAT entail?
The Mayans were truly remarkable
with their calendars short
and their calendars long.
They were people comfortable with
both the short view from harvest to harvest
and the long reach into the vast unknown.
