Tzolkin
“It is a good day to sit on a rock.” -http://www.mayanmajix.com/TZOLKIN/DT/DT.html
How about a Rocking Recliner, my Mayan Calendar day forcaster?
No, really, I’m a bum and I’m loving it! I spent almost all day sitting and either vegging out or snoozing away my ass. It was tremendous! “I dare you to move, dare you to lift yourself up off the floor,” Switchfoot. While I was sitting I surfed the web and looked up the Mayan stuff. http://i-am-mahendra.com/. Interesting and reflective. The advice to sit on a rock was nice in particular.
But, really, what is the deal with the world ending in 2012? Maybe there is some truth to it. There are just so many things really wrong with the world and I don’t know if humankind has left ourselves enough room to start fixing it? Don’t you find the evidence for our spiral into doom rather obvious: natural disasters, war, weapons, economic turmoil, broken families, degraded cultural values, disease, famine, shrinking resources, and the mess of so many faith-based religions.
And then there is the almost palpable taste of hope. I just listened to Obama’s speech and the talking heads (Russert, Brokaw, Matthews) set it up as a historic moment…it was. I’m well-educated, well-traveled, well-read, well-bred, and often a bit cynical when it comes to lah-dee-dah stuff. This was the real deal. He was present with his whole heart and one can feel his deep, deep hope pouring through in his powerful words. Can he really spearhead all this change that is talked about? God, I hope so. There is a dark, screwed up world out there…I would love nothing more than a ray of goodness and belief to cut through it all and motivate us all together to turn this world into a better place. Sometimes the power of faith can be absolutely astonishing.
For example, ESPN recently aired a story about this. Sadly, a young basketball coach from (South?) Carolina was tragically killed while fighting a fire at a furniture store in 2007. He was a captain in the town of Summerville’s fire department. Going back a handful of years, he had been coaching a group of talented kids beginning with them as middle schoolers. Back then, he told them that in 2008 they would win the state championship. He championed this belief again and again. They followed each other into high school where he coached them to a successful 2007 season…again predicting that they would win next year. He died that summer. The fire department had a special helmet made with his name on it that the team took with them into each game, placing it on the chair where he would have sat. Each game was played to honor his memory and strive for that goal he had made. The team fought hard in a semi-final game and earned their way to the championship round. Better than any Hollywood movie could do, their game was tight right up until their opponents shot a 65 footer hail Mary that sank for three points…that ended up not counting…so Summerville won. The coach’s wife was there and she carried his helmet out to the team at which point it was draped with the championship medal. It was so powerful…his hope had been realized because it was so powerful in fueling the players’ faith and belief in accomplishing it. What a tremendous story, heart-breaking and up-lifting all at once.
Likewise, all the things that terrify and frighten me can only do just that. They can not squelch the hope in me that is ignited in moments like witnessing Obama’s historic speech tonight. I can hope that one man may indeed focus our efforts to really, truly right our world. Usually I open with quotes, but seeing as how I’m rather inspired right now I think I’ll offer a quote in stark opposition to the Mayan suggestion. I think that this sums up my opinion of Obama, and other outstanding men and women, quite eloquently.
From George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Leave a Reply