128 / The Maya Calendar

Scholars don't really believe that the world will end, or be fundamentally transformed in some way, on December 21, 2012, but that is a significant date for the Maya Calendar, one of the most accurate calendars ever devised.

If you'd like to "read up" on the Maya Calendar, just click the image for an extensive discussion in Wikipedia. To go directly to a Wikipedia discussion of the "2012 Phenomenon," which is a belief that something "big" is going to happen on December 21, 2012, click on the underlined link.

It's a kind of an intellectual weakness, I know, but I have been intrigued with "2012" since first learning about it by studying the Maya Calendar in a Cabrillo College class on "The History And Culture of Mexico."

Human beings are so arrogant about our ability to master the natural world that I sometimes find myself rooting for the underdog (Mother Nature - a good topic for Mother's Day), and hoping that she will teach us more respect. Plus, the idea that "modern" knowledge is better than "ancient" knowledge also strikes me as presumptuous. After the conquest of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Spanish went out of their way to destroy the incredibly beautiful Maya codices that contained the wisdom and knowledge of the civilizations of Mexico.

Maybe they did know something we don't know.