2012: The Beginning of The End?

Image by kymioflario via FlickrWelcome to 2012.  If the Mayan Calendar is to be believed, this may be the last year of our lives.

If all comes to pass on Wednesday, December 12, something--we don't know what--will destroy the planet we live on.  If you've seen "2012" and "The Day After Tomorrow", don't say you weren't warned.

How you react to this event varies, depending on your situation.  If you're graduating from high school or college, plan on getting married, have a new job, starting a family or win the lottery, then this is not what you want to hear.  Conversely, if you are unemployed, are not in good health, are forced to live out of your car, and your significant other has run off with the hedge fund manager, then the apocalypse can't come soon enough.

There's also the possibility that the disaster of 12/12/12 could just be a false alarm.  Remember Harold Camping, the Christian radio host who predicted the end of the world last year--twice?  This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the United States and the Soviet Union nearly came to nuclear blows over missiles in Castro-land.  Oh, and it's been ten years since the September 11, 2001 attacks.  It only seemed like the end of the world back then.

But to hear Ryan Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy talk about the looming apocalypse as the big ball dropped on New York's Times Square, and Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin suggesting that we might want to go out laughing as they promote NBC's Thursday comedy lineup during "Sunday Night Football" . . . Well, that kind of sets the tone for what 2012 will be all about, doesn't it?

As December 12 approaches, there's not much you can do in preparing to meet your doom.  All the fallout shelters in the world have been turned into overpriced, underground condos (and even if they still exist, they wouldn't do you much good anyway).  Just go about your business, think about what you've accomplished in life, and say your goodbyes when the time comes.

Of course, if we're all still here on December 13, then so much the better.  They'll just pick another date for the world to end.  Hopefully not any time soon.