The Winter Solstice (as changing of the seasons go - not the coolest to begin with - it's either one of the equinoxes) marking the "official" change to winter from autumn and all that jazz.
I read an amusing blog post over at Scientific American a few days ago that I thought summed things up rather nicely
I found out that it was not just the Mayans that had an era ending today, apparently the Sumerians were looking for another planet to collide with the Earth round about this time. I have to pause and wonder if it would be driven, you know, by someone like Ming the Merciless.
From what I read a few months ago, the whole doomsday thing is one way to interpret the Mayan Calendar. Another way, and one that might be considered more optimistic, is the end of an epoch and the beginning of a new one. The questions then becomes, what will this new epoch look like? What will we create? Here are a few suggestions for beginnings and endings:
| Ending | Beginning |
|---|---|
| Age of Excess | Age of Frugality |
| Age of Fossil Fuels | Age of Renewable Energy |
| Age of Humans | Age of Something Else |
| Age of Prescription Drugs | Age of Homeopathy |
| Age of Wealth Concentration | Age of Wealth Equilibrium |
| Age of Possession | Age of Sharing |
| Age of The West | Age of the East (already underway) |
| Age of Deconstructive Thinking | Age of Systems Thinking |
| Age of Reality Television | Age of No Television |
| Age of Consumption | Age of Restoration |
OK, some humor - hopefully - what do you think? What "Age of...." would you like to usher in?
