And so as we enter the infamous year of 2012, I can only look back on the last year and officially announce 2011 as one of the worst years in history. With deadly quakes and floods plaguing the earth, and the horrific disaster in Japan that shocked everyone around the world. With extreme heat to extreme cold and a chaotic hurricane season that took its toll, it seems like our lonely rock that we all call home is going through some immense growing pains. However, not just the events that we have all seen on the news, I have also watched friends go through personal conflict and family members struggle. People everywhere are becoming angry and frustrated or depressed and uneasy. Even in my own life there has been struggle, illness and frustration, relationships have began and also become broken. If we are to have a big party to celebrate the new year, it should be to wave willingly goodbye to the year 2011, and look towards something better in this anticipated year.
I cannot be sure if people continue to preach the end of the world in 2012, as these things seem to dwindle the closer we get to them, and those jumping on the bandwagon to profit from a cultural phenomena have moved on to the next fad that is sweeping the mainstream media. For those of us that have studied the Mayan Calendar and know that the end of the world prophesies where cooked up out of ignorance and misconception, not actually derived from the small amount of antiquities left behind of the ancient Mayan civilization, will understand that this is a time for change in the way that we look at the world and treat each other. Of course, nothing is going to happen at midnight on December 21st 2012, and any skeptic is probably going to feel very clever and proud of himself at that moment when the twenty-second arrives.
But even for the true believer of 'the end of the world' theory, buying into to the pre-sale marketing of an awful Hollywood special effects movie, may find themselves a little disappointed after all of their preachings. Another Harold Camping in the making, moving onto the next scenario as they project their own fears of life and death into an amplification of the destruction of the earth. But like any epic story told throughout time, in mythology, literature and an intelligently structured movie, a scene portraying death and rebirth is necessary as a metaphor for true change. The old must die so the new can be born, such a natural progression, both in physical and metaphysical terms, that interwinds with every aspect of our lives. So why would we not as a culture interoperate the existence of our species in this same structure? Projecting the same symbolic meaning into aspects of our culture like we have done for thousands of years, especially at a time when cultural change is on the horizon. We can see this in the acceleration of our modern era over the last hundred years, colossal changes in the way that we live, interact and think as we transcend into a completely new paradigm. But December 21st is not an exact marker in time when life as we know it instantaneously changes when waking up on the morning of the 22nd. Everything has to go through a process of evolvement, as we do ourselves, growing and learning, and so do we collectively as a species.
I do feel as though I am somewhat exhausting my introduction to this report, so I will get to the meat and bones of the matter. Towards the end of the year, I had my own close call with death from complications of a serious illness that I never knew I had, one that will leave my life forever changed, in a physical and mental sense. I look back now on 2011 and try to see what progress I have really made. Although I concentrated on story and writing, I feel as though I became lost somewhere, losing focus on the goal posts and finding myself constantly on a tangent and retracing my steps. A few years ago, I set out on a quest to finnish what I had started, those ideas and ambitions that had been prominent in my mind with such intent but which dwindled when life got tough and the necessary steps needed to be taken. I was not in the correct place mentally and emotionally back then, and I still needed to go through much personal evolvement.
Years have passed since, and life has taught me many invaluable lessons, mental tools that I keep close at hand. At the same time I evolved my skill set, constantly practicing what I love to do the most, creating. I made many sacrifices in my life as I set out on my journey, I knew my ultimate destination, but I did not know the path that would lead to it. Through struggle and hardship I explored different routes, but the path opened up before me, everything evolving before me and falling into place in my mind like perfect little puzzle pieces. I felt that I knew exactly what I needed to do and exactly where I was going to end up, and so focused on what I believed was just over the horizon, ignoring everything else which would just serve as a distraction.
On our own 'Hero's Journey', as Joseph Campbell so elegantly often spoke about, a transition of change in our lives is often paralleled in mythology, a symbolic and metaphorical counterpart to a more esoteric school of thought. And so for a while as I made these sacrifices, and endeavored to prove to myself that I had what it took to get to where I wanted to be, people came into my life in both a positive and negative sense. This time of tests and of allies and enemies, is what Campbell called 'The Road Of Trials', a time when the 'Hero' will learn the lessons that he will need later in the story. As we entered 2011 something happened, unnoticeable at first, but what would become more apparent. As I journeyed along the path, focused upon the horizon and anxiously anticipating all I had worked towards to come rising from the top of the hill, I had failed to notice my surroundings. For no longer were the trees as straight and tall, with leaves a healthy green mixed with the light colors of the trees blossom, but these trees had began to slump and its color waning into a dark brown. Soon branches where bare and twisting like shadowy fingers pointing towards a dark grey sky.
Had I become lost along this path, accidentally wandering into unknown territory? Or was this where the path I had chosen lead, misguided by outside forces that I mistook for my own intuition? In Campbell's Hero's Journey, this was the ordeal, a moment when you come face to face with your worst fears. A giant shadowy figure rises out of the mist just a few feet away. Towering above me, it stands in my path, a guardian of the road ahead and a deadly foe indeed. Here is where many fail, as the Hypothalamus part of the brain becomes active, giving us our two impulsive options. Many will turn and flee, like I have many times myself, finding themselves back at the beginning and having to start their journey all over again. Others will stand and fight out of arrogance, ignorance or sheer panic, just to agitate the shadowy creature, making it bigger and stronger, darker and denser.
So how do we slay the Dragon? This drooling shadowy creature, consisting of all of your worst fears, with big bulging eyes and a gigantic mouth wide open, revealing its razor sharp teeth. Surly their is another way to approach this beast? A third option may reveal itself, one of intellect from the harsh lessons we have already learnt along the road. Perhaps if we embraced the shadow, understood it for what it is, acknowledged it but no longer identified with it as part of ourselves, then maybe, we could pass. As well as being symbolistic for difficult times in our own lives, this is what 2012 symbolizes for us all, and should be seen as a positive moment in all of our lives. To think of it as the end of the world is just continuing the projecting of fear, making our shadows bigger and stronger, but to take that fear and see it for what it is, the fear of the unknown and to fear only fear itself, is to take your own shadow and turn it into something positive. That is what this year is all about. For me, I faced one of my worst fears and have so far survived the ordeal. Although everyday is still a struggle, and I face this new challenge for the rest of my life, it was perhaps the shakeup I needed to give me some focus and change my perspective on what is truly important in life. And so 2012 becomes about change, like it was always meant to be, giving me a new lease of life and deeper understanding of what I want to achieve with it.