Does the World End in 2012?

It's fashionable in some circles to claim that our doom is at hand and with it those elements of civilisation that we find most disagreeable. There is a certain comfort in thinking, even believing, in the possibility that the end of world is nigh within less than two years. We are at the cusp, it is stated with great confidence and woe betide those who claim otherwise. Can't you see all the signs that tell us the dangers we face and the forces which will tear at the fabric of our societies. And, so the story comes from people who would will us to believe in the destruction of our world.

Such pronouncements have their place as an expression of people's amazement at events reported through third parties and spread as mantras for living life to the full in the here and now. Plan not for your plans will come to nothing as this earth is torn by destruction. Should you choose to believe in such pronouncements, you can party with abandon enjoying the delights of the flesh without feeling the guilt of your super ego's remonstrations to calm and more deliberative action of a preservative kind to maintain balance and sobriety.

The truth is that we cannot say whether as an individual our worlsd might not be shattered by the dangerous forces that will inevitably sweep through the world in 2012. That the world is or will be any different from what it is or was in the past we can be sure that the answer is no. No the world or worlds will not be destroyed in 2012, just as the worlds were not destroyed in previous speculations of its coming end. No cataclysmic fire will blow us all to smithereens. Some fires may end a few of us, but for the majority, 2013 will be a period of immense joy and growing security as we turn the tide of our failings and increase the abutments to a strong and definable future.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Children of the Sea

Yesterday, I saw the youth of Positano! A lad of six perched on the front of his father's boat happily shouting to his dad pronouncements about the wonderful experience of a life divided between the way of the water and the way of land. Clearly, here was a lad learning the fluid life of the sea. He was obviously becoming a meaningful member of a largish Italian family for whom the life of the waves was a destiny and calling not to be questioned but delighted in. The enormous pleasure to be derived from this way of self determination was unquestionable. This is a way of life that has survived the millennia, a way of existing between the many forces shaping a community. Fortunate, are they for whom this way of life is possible.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The World of Give and Take

Rising early in the small coastal village of Positano, Italy, I am waxing philosophical! From a balcony of a villa overlooking the Mediterranean, the sea stretches flat and peacefully into the distance while a high curved landscape defines a basin against which small waves lap continuously, their gentle rush echoing into the reaches. Yes, here it is that one can imagine a man of the sea, harpoon in hand setting the stage of all things maritime.

Yesterday, we took a cruise to Amalfi from where as history tells us many an adventure into the Mediterranean was launched. The now familiar cross of the Hospitaliers, the Maltese cross, hangs high decorating the narrow corridors of mysterious stone carved out of the mountains that fall away into the depths of the salty waters. The village by the sea is a curious blend of vibrant enterprise and exploratory enthusiasm. A strong rocky and massive church holds the secrets to the peoples strength of character as generation after generation took their confidence from a faith based on suffering and painful self sacrifice.

The people are part of a civilisation based precariously on a balance between what was feared and what was trusted, a confidence arising from an assurance that to do right by the men of faith would bring about the certainty of survival in a landscape continuously pressed between competing mountains of water and sea, one soft and giving yet merciless in it's rules, the other hard and taking requiring little more than the application of strength and determination. Two world exist here side by side, a world of uncertainty, risk and massive reward from the depths of the waters to the fortunes of the distant climes, set against a harsh but more predictable world of calculation and application of will from faith in the goodness of higher authority.

Occasionally, now a cock will crow or a driver will toot.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.