Mayan calendar: the beginning of a new purpose for humanity

By Mike Nickerson Sustainability December 10 2012

Circles have no corners; ends and beginnings flow smoothly from one to the other, yet, I can’t help but think that the end of the Mayan Calendar can mark the beginning of a new purpose for humanity.

A new era is due. Serious problems are growing around natural resource depletion and waste, revealing that the goal of perpetual economic expansion is past its “best before” date. As a species, humanity is now grown up. Not that we act it, with our Peter Pan attitude that we can grow forever and that Mother (Nature) will somehow provide everything we want and clean up all of our mess. Even the present economic stagnation suggests that the human project is full grown. The Earth does not have enough to offer for us to double our activity in the next twenty years, let alone double again over the generation following that.

How about we regard the end of the Mayan Calendar, on December 21st, as the beginning of humankind’s adult phase? A phase where we acknowledge that our planet, tho wonderfully abundant, is nevertheless finite, and where we take responsibility for living safely within its physical bounds.

Not to expect too much from a calendar date, here is a back-up plan:

December 10th begins the turn around toward longer days . . .