Tantalize

This time of year is the real test of resolve; particularly when considering healthy living. It is a tempting challenge to not indulge in eating all of the assorted sweets and goodies that pack on the pounds.  I couldn’t tell you when I agreed to live a healthier life, but my guess is soon after visiting my doctor for my annual check-up last year.  Suddenly everything went haywire; my blood pressure, cholesterol, vitamin deficiencies and even dry skin (for crying out loud).  Perhaps I just happened upon a doctor that likes to get a good view of a new patient? Whatever the turn of events were, I committed to change my wicked-vice-filled ways and to cultivate a healthier existence.  It wasn’t a case of my not knowing any better, I did; it was just I didn’t care better.  But all of that changed, and now we live almost meat and dairy free; which is something to say for this hunter-of-flesh, cheese adoring fellow. With that, I thought of all of the wayward enticements that surface at this festive season of the year; and in which indulging into them got me thinking about the word tantalize; how some foods can get my saliva glands working over time.  My son and I were just reminiscing on the year we survived exclusively on chocolate chip cookies, (for about two weeks; then we both came down with horrible colds).

   It just so happens that during this time we were both free from womanly influences concerning long term affects of a sugar-rich-blitz-mostly diet. That may be just a coincidence by the way. So then, onward to the origins of the word Tantalizing ~

  When the Greek gods of Olympus announced that they would visit Tantalus, one of their favorite mortals, to have a meal with him, Tantalus decided that the best thing to offer the gods would be the thing most dear to him: his son.  He killed his son Pelops and cooked him in a stew.  But the gods knew by the smell of the food alone that it was human flesh and refused it, cursing Tantalus.  For his horrible crime they punished him by placing him in one area of a river under a tree in Tartarus, the underworld.  When he bent down to drink, the water disappeared. When he reached up for fruit from the trees, the branch would be moved away by a wind.  Hence the word tantalize ~ to tempt in a madding way.

   This time of year is a tantalizing experience of sugary-flavored sticky sweet yumminess.  As well as in the wake of enjoyment is the sincere intention and promise to dedicate the first part of the following year to getting rid of its effects.  

Now isn’t that a sweet tale?  The promise I mean.

The Apocalypse Hangover

People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs and perceptions. So what happens when one belief conflicts with another valued belief? The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feeling of discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs. When there is a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviors, something must change in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance. 

   So when an anticipated event, an expectation, fails to materialize any of us, all of us even, are challenged to cope with the distance that prevails between wanted and actual; that can be tricky.
   Yesterday there was a lot of attention focused on the possibility of the end of the world. Fortunately for this blog, it didn’t happen and I can continue to speculate on the significance and colorful array of being in our shared living years. There has been some research into the history of similar predictions; in 634 BCE many ancient Romans believed the world would end. In Matthew 16:28 Jesus told a crowd of people, “Verily I say to you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom”. So in 60 CE this and similar statements led many early Christians, including St. Paul, to believe that Judgment Day would happen in their lifetime. Others as well, Pope Innocent III in 1284 CE; Johannes Stoeffler in 1524 CE; even Christopher Columbus in his Book of Prophecies, had said the world should have ended in 1658 CE. Any list would be remiss without Pat Robertson saying in the fall of 1982 that the world would end, he darn well guaranteed it. This list is impressive; the common denominator being ~ we’re still here. And much like those who believed and then were left to pick up the pieces of their lives after missing the train-to-glory, we can take comfort in knowing that we’re a resilient lot and prone towards rethinking our perception of what is real.

   I talk about what is real a lot because I am one who has grown sick and tired of being sick and tired. The best medicine and therapy I have found that money can’t buy is genuine acceptance with heaping doses of unbiased processing. 

 With that my happy prognosis’s is looking favorable; until the end of my world.

End of Our Time

For those who embrace the concept of the end of the world occurring on the 21^st of December, 2012…that would be…well…today.   The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs, (meaning the study of the end of the world) according to which cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on 21 December 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar (aka the Maya Calendar.) Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae have been proposed as pertaining to this date, though none have been accepted by mainstream scholarship.

   A New Age interpretation of this transition has been that the date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and 21 December 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggest that the date marks the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world include the arrival of the next solar maxium (great solar activity that we have been experiencing actually since 2009) an interaction between Earth and the black hole at the center of the galaxy, (some named it Hank…just kidding, everyone knows it’s called Eddy) or Earth's collision with a planet called Nibiru. 

(An idea whose predication of a 2003 has passed, but the namesake lingers on.  Some claim that might just be the DA14 asteroid with an estimated diameter of about 45 meters that was discovered on February 23, 2012. It is predicted to come extremely close to earth, closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit.  Some still,conjecture an impact on February 16, 2013, while some suggest perhaps 2026 a greater chance.)

     Scholars from various disciplines have dismissed the idea of such cataclysmic events occurring in 2012. Professional Mayanist scholars state that predictions of impending doom are not found in any of the extant classic Maya accounts, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar "ends" in 2012 misrepresents Maya history and culture, (but we really, really like Hollywood drama endings don’t we?)  While astronomers have rejected the various proposed doomsday scenarios as pseudoscience (looks like science without the dedication to facts) stating that they conflict with simple astronomical observations.

  "My grandfather told me that there will be a change after the New Year," says Jeremias Kulaak Pall, who has just grown out of his teens and is a bona-fide Mayan descendent.
"He says that there will be more peace and prosperity going forward, so I think we should look forward to it."
This cheerful perspective actually lines up neatly with what archeologists and anthropologists say about the significance of this New Year. On or around the solstice, the b'ak'tun, a Maya measurement of time roughly equal to 394 years, will end. The end of this period is traditionally interpreted as a time of significant change.
   For years now I’ve toyed with the idea that we do not comprehend what the end of the world could actually mean.  Perhaps not the end of the planet or life on it, but OUR WORLD, as it is organized in its current fashion change.  What if the end does not mean cataclysm but an enlightenment?  Wouldn’t that be just

Swell.