Dare We Welcome In 2014?
By James Donahue
Today is
a day of celebration all around the world. According to the Georgian Calendar, established by the Roman Catholic Church in
1582, this is the first day of the year 2014. The festivities include parades, parties and elaborate fireworks displays as
the clocks strike midnight beginning in the Far East and concluding in the Western United States.
The general mindset is one of relief at concluding an old year filled
with conflict and troubles, and thoughts of a new beginning. Many people make resolutions with sincere thoughts of moving
through the New Year more carefully without making the mistakes of the past.
But can we avoid the past in 2014? It seems that our unwillingness to make serious changes to fix the issue of global
warming, weather change, the Japan disaster at Fukushima, the tons of toxic radioactive water and years of oil and waste discharge
into the Pacific Ocean, the tons of crude oil and toxic chemicals dumped by British Petroleum after the Deepwater Horizon
oil rig explosion and fire in 2010, the takeover of world governments by big corporations and the growing insanity of war
in all corners of the world, tip the scales against our having a better year in 2014.
There is disagreement everywhere. As one writer put it: “It seems every week new intensely divisive topics
emerge in the public narrative. And entrenched opinion-makers on each of the polarized “sides” of the issue fan
the self-serving flames with intentionally provocative rhetoric, lies, distortion and bastardized ideologies.”
The astrologers warn that Venus is in Capricorn and will remain so until
March, 2014. This is a dangerous time when “business as usual begins to fray as strange passions rise.” Passions
rise to the surface, there is deep confusion and fear, and the answers to problems are months away. On the positive side,
it is a time when women rise further into power. But will that be enough to ward off the looming disasters caused
by past mistakes and the time when world leaders cower in fear and trembling, unable to decide what to do?
The violent storms that swept our planet in 2013 will likely continue
and possibly get worse. There will be more destruction, more flooding, more crops lost. We can expect more mass killings,
either from war or disaster, famine and disease could easily become our next scourge.
Scientists now believe the Sun is about to go through a pole shift, and they do not know if this will cause changes
in the way this star behaves. In addition, the poles of our warming earth appear to be moving. Will new and even more intense
catastrophic events be just around the corner?
The
Christians are expecting a savior to come down out of the sky and fix the mess humanity has made on this planet. But what
if they are wrong? What if there is no savior and our future rests on our ability to save ourselves or go extinct?
All that we can suggest at this point is: just hang onto your seat,
express all the love for your neighbors that you can, enjoy each new day we are given and watch to see what happens.
