Last week we happened across the trailer for Roland Emmerich’s new disaster flick 2012. It looked pretty snazzy with its end-of-the-world special effects, but it also looked too familiar. We’ve seen the world end before. Deep Impact. Independence Day. The Day After Tomorrow. Knowing. We’ve been subjected to so many of these films over the years that it’s becoming hard to tell them apart. Look at it this way; if you have to distinguish one asteroid movie from another by describing it as “the one with Billy Bob Thornton” as opposed to “the one with Bruce Willis” you can bet the genre has been saturated with shots of Manhattan being obliterated by a massive tidal wave.
But 2012 is supposedly different because it’s based on an actual prophecy and at the end of the trailer an ominous line of copy asks you to “FIND OUT THE TRUTH-Search: 2012.” So that’s what Nathan did and he found out that this whole 2012 hullabaloo is based on a theory that the world is going to come to an end when the Mayan calendar runs out at 11:11 am on December 21st, 2012.
Nathan became very excited when he read this.
“Heather, didn’t I tell you I’ve been seeing 11:11 all over the place? Every time I’ve looked at a clock lately it’s been 11:11.”
He did indeed tell me that, but I wasn’t about to start believing his coincidental glances at the clock were actually prophetic nudges about the disaster to come.
Nathan, however, was hooked and he started digging deeper. Apparently there are all sorts of end-of-days prophecies that suggest we might be in for it within the next few years. I’m refusing to bite because we went through this whole thing ten years ago when everyone thought the world was going to stop working at the onset of Y2K.
But Nathan wasn’t about to give up, and last night as I was getting into bed he pointed toward the TV. “Look,” he said.
I looked. And I shrugged. “What am I looking at?” I asked.
“The clock on the DVD player. It says 11:11.”
I glanced at the clock radio next to my side of the bed. “Mine says 11:08.”
He shook his head. “I’m telling you…”
“You’re telling me what?” I insisted, “That the world is going to end in three years? I don’t want to talk about this.” Seriously, it’s starting to feel like I’m married to Fox Mulder.
He sighed. “It would suck to only have three years left. We’d never get to see our new trees mature.”
Right. Let’s worry about the trees missing out on a full life.
I do believe in some things. I believe the human race is in jeopardy. We are slowly killing our planet and I have no doubt that some day we will no longer have the resources to sustain life. I do not, however, believe that the world is going to end because some lazy Mayans decided they didn’t need to plan that far into the future.
But if it is true? I know exactly where I’ll be at 11:11 am on December 21st, 2012. I’m going to be sitting at my desk at work.
Now that’s the part of the prophecy that scares the hell out of me.