Time

Many years ago, while I was living in San Jose, Ca, I had somehow come by the most extraordinary book. At the time, I remember, I was heavily into studying Buddhism & attending college. I don't know where I'd found the time to read this book -- the title of which is lost to me, now -- I was working four nights a week, in school from about seven in the morning till nine or ten at night & sleeping, at that time, on Sundays. I was so busy with other studies & work that I'm surprised this book has stuck with me all this time.

This book was about homesteading. It was not like subsequent titles on the subject I've read since. This book -- I believe written by a hippie with a simple & clear writing style, had taken an idea I'd thought entirely too difficult for the likes of me to produce, & made it all seem so possible. The author had described in complete detail everything from canning & storing the food one could produce to how to divert a stream on a small piece of land to water one's crops or garden without harming the environment.

I remember being not only impressed that the presentation made it all seem so much simpler than other books on the subject, but that it was all thoroughly explained in a rather small book.

I've read a few titles written with a survivalist slant about doing this, but, let's face it, most survivalists are neither concerned with the environment, nor are the majority of them very good writers.

The past few days, I've been compelled to do some study on EMP's (Electromagnetic Pulses) of both a nuclear & non-nuclear nature. I find it very surprising how simple it would be for a terrorist &/or what's referred to as a rogue nation to send the US (much of Canada & Mexico as well) back to the nineteenth Century. Really. Of course, going the nuclear route would cost quite a lot of money, but launching a nuke on a ballistic missile from even a small ship off any of the coasts of the US & detonated at only about 250 miles above Kansas, would produce a large enough EMP to disrupt communication, the distribution of electricity, & even computers & electronic devices not just in our homes, but also in most modern vehicles.

While there are countless Web pages detailing all this, I'd found one about a piece of fiction entitled One Second After which explains the realities of the effects of an EMP in a much less scientific manner.

Then, last night, I'm actually watching television. I'm gathering material for another blahg concerning the inanity of marketing, so, to endure the commercials, I'm flipping channels & watching programs I wouldn't normally. On the History Channel I'd come across one of their non-documentaries (non-documentary because few docs on television are anything more than ratings grabbers filled with misinformation) about prophecies. Apparently, this was the program Nostradamus Effect Episode: 2012 Extinction.

As most of us know, the Mayans had produced a calendar which ends in the year 2012. Most believe this to be a prophecy of the end of the world, but it may only be where the Mayans had stopped in their description of the 26,000 year event cycle. Of course, their view was that every 26,000 years, there was -- & would be -- massive catastrophes nearly ending life on this planet.

According to this program, there are at least four other prophecies pointing to -- or may be pointing to -- a time in the neighborhood of 2012, lending supposed credibility.

Don't start thinking I buy into any of this. Being a believer in possibilities, I say, "Maybe". Maybe these prophecies -- & we can consider the possibility of an EMP destroying all our lives in the near future a prophecy as well -- will come to be. But, to the same degree, they may not.

Those of us who'd grown up even as late as the 60's & 70's can remember how fearful this country was of Soviet nuclear bombardment & the inevitable mutually assured destruction which would ensue. I remember being very entertained by how silly it all seemed in grade school when we were shown the "Duck & Cover" movies -- which may have stopped being shown in schools shortly after I was in grade school.

My point is that we all know that anything can happen, & that shit happens normally when we least expect it.

We are living in a time of incredible convenience. We have a Starbuck's on nearly every corner of most every street in this country; we have the soul-sucking Wal-Mart everywhere; & most people here simply can't live without their weekly dose of The Simpsons or Grey's Anatomy (why, I'll never understand).

So, if suddenly all this went away, if our climate (due to the crap we pump into it every day), retaliated by, say, decreasing our oxygen content, or making the temperatures rise or fall by even a few degrees every year, if we suddenly had no electricity, medicine, text-messaging, those long, pointless phone conversations which relay absolutely no information, little or no means of transport but our feet (remember that the survivors of 9/11 had to walk -- in some cases many miles -- to get home), no food or Starbuck's coffee being trucked in on a daily basis, the majority of us would die within weeks, if not days.

Think about that. I know none of us ever do. Not really. Either by natural event or possible terrorist attack, we will die in very short order.

Is it not time we all start living with our planet -- the very thing which sustains us? Is it not time we stop thinking about what others have, or have done?

Is it not time we learn to live together?