Beyond the end of Time
21/12/12 04:48
OK first of all, I want to state simply that the world did not end. That may be an obvious fact, but according to a global Reuters poll one in seven people believe that the end is near, and one in ten believe that it would occur today. It is December 21, which is the last day on the Mayan Long Count calendar.
Ah, but you say, the day is not yet over. In fact it has only just begun. Well that is true, here in South Dakota. And, I guess, it is also true in Central America, where the Mayan culture and civilization blossomed. But the Mayan Long Count calendar is an interesting blend of proto-science and superstition. Here is the science part. The Mayans were keen observers of the natural world. They were aware of the movement of some of the heavenly bodies. Among their observations were observations of the Sun. Although the Mayan culture flourished relatively near to the equator, they did notice that the position of the sun relative to the earth made a big difference. For half of the year the days get incrementally longer until they reached the longest day of the year. For the other half, they become shorter and shorter until they reach the shortest day of the year. The Mayans may not have understood that it is a matter of location on the globe. The shortest day of the year her in North America is the longest day of the year in Australia.
Solstices have a long history in spiritual beliefs, as do all of the movements of the Earth, moon and stars. Solstices gave information about when to sow crops, when to harvest, when to hunt. The movements of planets and stars were used for navigation and for understanding the time of the year and what seasonal changes were coming.
The ancients didn’t stray far from the campfire in the evenings because there were serious dangers. You could become food for a nocturnal animal if you weren’t careful. Instead, they sat around the fire, looked up into the night sky, and told stories.
Modern science, however, has made it possible to measure the exact moment of the solstice. Instead of it being a particular night, it is a specific moment. The movements of the sun and earth mean that it reached its precise location at its most southern point in the earth sky at a specific moment. You’ll notice that I put that in its past tense. Although tonight is the night we call solstice here in the northern hemisphere, the precise moment when the sun was at its most southern point relative to the planet earth was 10:12 and 43 seconds pm AEDST (Australian Eastern Daylight Standard Time). As I write, it is 10:29 AEDST. The moment has passed. Communications are still flowing freely from Australia. News.com.au is streaming live Internet feeds. Their web site is updating normally. The world did not end. I didn’t think it would.
But I do know that the movement of the earth, planets, sun and stars does have an effect upon us. Although I’ve traveled to Central America and spent some time near the equator and I’ve traveled to Australia and spent some time on the other side of it, I am essentially a northern person. I think in terms of Christmas coming in the winter, near the winter solstice. I imagine the birth of the Christ Child on a clear winter’s night. I am not offended or startled by nativity scenes with a little snow.
I know that the effects of short days are real. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that occurs during the winter. Short days leave some people with a sense of hopelessness, increased sleep, less energy, less ability to concentrate, loss of interest in work and other activities, sluggish movements, social withdrawal, unhappiness and irritability. It can become long-term, chronic depression if it is not properly treated.
Even though I have not experienced SAD personally, I do know that there is a part of me each year that gets a bit weary of winter. And I don’t live up north where the days get really short and the nights get really long. Up above the Arctic Circle the sun won’t rise today. Although the bulk of our winter weather is still ahead of us, I get a twinge of spring fever right after Christmas each year. I can endure a few more months, but one of my techniques is to think about warmer weather, gardening, and getting out in my canoe on the lake. The Internet makes this easy. I just Google “freestyle canoeing” and I can watch YouTube for a few minutes and imagine myself out on the lake. Some years I am building a boat at this time of the year, but there is no boat project in my garage at the moment. Home repairs are the theme of my project time this year.
But I am deeply aware of friends and members of our congregation for whom these holidays are especially tough. We’ve had the death of one of our members this week. Another member just lost her mother. The news “the cancer is back and it is far more serious this time” has been delivered to a member of our church. A 16-year-old died in Pierre from a shotgun blast delivered by another 16-year-old. The suicide rate in our community is double the national average. And we are all reeling from grief and horror following the mass murder of innocent schoolchildren in Connecticut. We know that this is not a season of joy for all.
But we are not without hope. The world did not end. We will continue to deal with the struggles and grief, the tragedies and triumphs of this life. Pain and sorrow and loss are still part of the reality of our existence, but so also is community and love and faith. We are not alone.
In the midst of the messiness of this world, Christ comes to us. A child is born. God demonstrates in a way that cannot be ignored that ours is not the last generation of humans.
Still, the world also did not end for the superstitious wackos who predicted that it would. We will continue to live with them. I suppose they’ll find another date on which to hang their apocalyptic ranting. They will continue to be our neighbors. We will continue to love them – even beyond the end of time as we know it.