Happy New Year, but may potato salad fall on your head if you were one of those who believed the Mayan calendar “prophecy” about the world ending on December 21st. Hopefully if you believed this sauerkraut you kept it to yourself, however if you were one of those who made a point of honoring it, then perhaps you need to take stock of how you came to believe the esoteric ramblings from an ancient pagan culture.
About that ancient pagan culture: In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a new brand of spirituality making the rounds these days. It doesn’t have a name, but you’re able to recognize it right away when you see it. I’m thinking especially of the huge tribal gathering that took place at Stonehenge—that collection of 5,000-year-old time clock rock pieces in England—on December 21st by generic spiritualists and assorted New-Agers and pagans, some of whom believed that the world would end, and some who just went for the good vibes and to pay homage to the Winter Solstice.
Some in that large Stonehenge tribe wore colorful Peruvian hats, while others dressed as white WICCA witches in capes and leotards. The leotard people danced like Shiva goddesses as the sun came up, a celebration tied to the end of the 13th Baktun Mayan cycle. Various men in the crowd donned Viking or Plains Indian costumes. Others wore nothing special but you could see them looking skyward in a worshipful way as the sun came up. Generally, there seemed to be a wide mix of reactions in the Stonehenge crowd to the world not ending. Many kissed and hugged one another as others looked tearfully into the sun.
One serious young man bowed his head and then reverently placed the palms of his hands together in a Buddhist way before raising them up over his forehead Dalai Lama-style. I had to wonder if he even knew to what or to whom he was praying. No doubt he was channelling the general mishmash: the sun, the good vibes, the big crowd around him, or even Stonehenge itself (all those cool rocks, etc.). I couldn’t help but think: This is how lost we’ve become as a culture.
Stonehenge is wonderful as an historic site on par with ancient Greek ruins, but as a collection of 5,000 years old time clocks, there’s nothing particularly spiritual about the place. One at least can make a case for the holiness of a place like Mt. Sinai in Egypt near St. Anthony’s Coptic monastery. Hiking to the top of Sinai with pilgrims in order to see the sun rise would at least be tapping into a spirituality that is not generic. Mt. Sinai at least has meaning and form in specific old texts (The Old Testament), rather than the ambiguous uncertainties of nicely shaped stones of questionable origin but “made” mystic, alluring and “cool” because of that ambiguity.
Bottom line: The stones at Stonehenge are just stones, and the Mayan pyramids are just architecture.
Still, it’s better to believe in stones than, say, to believe in the empty promises of politics and politicians. This brings me to the second part of this column: What I’d like to see changed or happen in 2013. Here goes:
1. The end of the National Rifle Rampage Association’s arrogant belief that citizens need to arm themselves with semiautomatic Bushmaster AR-15 rifles. When NRA chief executive Wayne Lapeer came out and said that military assault weapons are not the problem but that schools should employ armed police officers, he revealed himself to be, as The New York Post put it, “America’s maddest gunman.” The Connecticut massacre has cooled the public’s love affair with the NRA. Some kind of change is on the way.
2. President Obama needs to stop making compromises to right wing, “no-government” types who want to make changes or cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Poor people and seniors should not be made to suffer because the government has been blatantly “borrowing” from the Social Security fund for years. Social Security is not an entitlement program; it is our money. Even President Reagan, the father of deregulation and less government, regarded Social Security as an untouchable sacred cow.
3. If food prices keep getting any higher, it may be time to leave the city and buy a farm! Current prices at the Port Richmond Thriftway come to mind: one year ago, frozen boxed Alaskan Salmon was $3.89; today it is over $5.00. Non-meat Veggie burgers at Thriftway are now almost $6.00 a box, up from $3.00 two years ago. Hamburger is cheaper than these little frozen patties. Put a cap on food prices; we really don’t want to sell our house and buy a farm in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
4. Philly may have an ongoing love affair with Tastykake, but shame on Tastykake for pulling a fast one when they shrunk the pies and then placed the tiny edibles into stylish little trays hoping we wouldn’t notice.
Dear Tastykake, we don’t need your precious little trays.
5. Local contractors with big trucks should learn to drive on small city streets. Last month a brick-washing contractor on my street backed his truck into two trees, slicing off several branches. Apparently the truck was trying to back up when the driver lost perspective. Down went the tree branches despite cries of “No! NO!” from frantic co-workers as the truck drifted chaotically. For 2013 contractors in big trucks should take refresher courses on driving and parking on small streets.
6. What’s with all the big, unhappy barking dogs in the neighborhood? Everybody, it seems, has a dog these days, although many aren’t little pooches but mammoth creatures that don’t seem happy at all that they’re kept home alone all day. While walking about the neighborhood, I’ve noticed that many of these dogs think nothing of lunging towards their owner’s living room window (when they see someone pass on the sidewalk outside) as if they want to charge through the glass. I grew up with little dogs that would no sooner charge into a window than they’d race into the path of a Mac truck. For 2013, I’d have big dogs undergo “socialization” lessons or, if that doesn’t work, I’d make it mandatory that they be given “peace and harmony” pills. The neighborhood, after all, is not a big lion cage.
7. If number 6 sounds unrealistic, I apologize. An unruly big barking dog is at least much better than going to Stonehenge to wait out the end of the Mayan calendar.
