“Like the sun the head shall sear the shining sea: The Black Sea’s living fish shall all but boil. When Rhodes and Genoa Half-starved shall be The local folk to cut them up shall toil.”
-Nostradamus on 2022
Most of us don’t need to believe in Nostradamus and Astrology to understand that something strange is afoot these last 30 months on this planet. It’s a great time to be living on Earth right now. It’s truly a Tale of Two Earths.
There is an Earth that I seem to belong to, one that experiences the ravages of the pandemic, the unpredictable shifts in climate causing draughts and floods, the furious growth of intolerance in places where tolerance was the norm, and the greed and madness fueling the rush for cyber currency, non-fungible tokens, virtual real estate etc.
There is an alternate Earth whose citizens do not see the pandemic as real and dare it to kill them with breasts bared, would rather deep dive for oil and coal not believing a word of climate change, inflame hatred between communities for power and wealth, and shift reality to virtual in any which way one can, laughing all the way to the cyber banks.
Who is right? Who is wrong?
What interests me is not the beliefs, motives, values and behaviour; it’s the shift to the law of the jungle in the name of civilization. We are in ‘1984’ with a twist. It’s not merely totalitarianism that Orwell warned about, but an unholy alliance between totalitarian dictators in all parts of the world cohabiting with anarchists in blissful fulfillment. Pigs rule in human form, and as always, some pigs are more equal.
Is it nihilism? Does anything matter? Do ethics and morals, human dignity, love, compassion have any meaning anymore? When religions that are founded on love and compassion, deprive one another of basic rights to procreate or otherwise, live and co-exist, when religions are no better than politics, and politics no better than criminality, is there a future?
I am not a nihilist. I don’t believe in destiny. I believe in an energy that created us and will recreate us without fear or favor. This energy is neutral. It does not look at the short term and long term. It responds nonjudgmentally, not caring about life and death, bliss and suffering, focusing only on the eternal sustenance of the energy.
I believe that this energy will reset, or using a cyber phrase, reboot. A control-alt-delete in the old Windows framework with an automatic upgrade. We have had precedence in the form of ice ages. Eastern mythology speaks of recurring cycles of hundreds of thousands of years, one of which some say is about to reset now. Would it be so bad if it did?
We need a reset, a reboot, an update. Pressing the Start button ironically will Stop what we do now. If we have the collective awareness and intelligence, we should be able to do it manually. If not, the Universe will strike back and do a preset reset.
So, my 2022 reset is this: care less about myself and more about others. Use my freedom of expression to heal others, not to harm them. Be greedy for change, only if it benefits others, not merely self. Finally, accept that there may be an auto reset, if mine and those of others are not enough.
