Change is a known unknown. We know things will change, change is common, change is constant. As humans we can deal with change, we may not ‘like’ it, but that doesn’t mean its not good for us. Change is important.
Change is an opportunity.
I have thought a lot about ‘the end of the world’, I have done some study in comparative religions, and its almost cliché how much religions love to talk about the end of the world. Especially the ones that pick specific calendar dates really seem foolish, because looking back from now – the world didn’t end. But it has changed.
Many worlds have ended. The world of the Luddites, for example, no longer exist. The world of chattel slavery, no longer exists. The Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman empire – these worlds did end, and new worlds took their place. I think the ‘end of the world’ - the Apocalypse, is a poorly understood symbol.
Around 2008, I was talking with some friends about ‘the end of the world’. In that moment, everybody knew about December 21, 2012 – the day the Mayans supposedly predicted the end of the world. Now, I already knew this was wrong, I had looked into it and as far as I could tell, the Mayans counted that date as ‘the end of a cycle’ - it was just an interpretation that this meant the end of the world. But either way it was interesting to talk about. We sat around and discussed what the heck we were doing at college studying if the end of the world was just around the corner.
One friend, who was living on campus but had dropped out a year previous, said to us, “The world better end in 2012 or I’m screwed!” I really thought this was funny, maybe one of the funniest things, not just about my friend, but about human nature.
Two semesters later, I dropped out of college as well.
In 2009 I arrived to Colombia, I embraced some change in my life. It was risky to make such a change, but I didn’t want to wait to have change thrust upon me – I wanted to get ahead of the curve, get in front of the wave. Looking back, I think it worked out pretty well.
In June 2012, I moved to a small town in the Mountains of Colombia’s Central Range. A place where one might think that if the end of the world came, they could last a little longer.
Now (obviously) the world didn’t end in 2012. It kept going.
But things are changing, and accelerating towards change as well. Call it Apocalypse, call it Kali Yuga, call it End of Days, whatever you will, but things are changing, and later, after, they won’t be the same ever again. Another way to say this - ‘The 90’s aren’t coming back’.
What part of this can we control?
As I discussed to in my previous post, we can only control ourselves. We can take responsibility for as much of this world as we can, but we must start with ourselves. We can control which thoughts we listen to, we can control how we react to the outside world, we can control our daily routines, we can control where we place our focus. We should do all these things and pay close attention to how and what we are doing – everyday. We should strive to be the best people that we can be – everyday.
Our society is the sum of millions of people doing (or not doing) these things. And it always will be.
If you can’t get your own life in order, what use is it to tell someone else what they should do with theirs? We know this, its ‘common sense’, but you should get your own house in order first, before you try to organize your community. But as my grandpa likes to say - “Common sense isn’t all that common nowadays”.
I think about this quote from Martin Luther – a man who had a big part in changing the world, ending one world and bringing a new one into its place. Perhaps he recognized it when he said, that even if the world would go to pieces tomorrow (it did), he would still plant his apple tree today. On one hand, this seems foolish. Who are you planting the tree for the world is ending?? But as we know, the world didn’t end. Even if Luther himself, or his children, don’t eat from that fruit tree, tomorrow’s world, whatever it will be, will be better with an apple tree.
We are at this point right now. Some call it a Fourth Turning, I read a really in depth article by Jim Quinn called The Fading Smile of a Dying Empire that breaks this perspective down quite elegantly.
The 90’s ain’t coming back.
But we should still plant our trees today. We should still improve our morning routine. We should still work to improve ourselves – because while this world is ending, the new one on the other side will still require competence.