No Girlfriends

I don't know if you've ever seen M. Night Shyamalan's movie Signs. It is a favorite of ours, and in fact I'm often known to say that I am insane with anger. In my wacky world, it's code for being pleased. There's a scene in which Joaquin Phoenix is talking about people who come up with crazy theories and have never had a girlfriend in their whole lives. One day Trent was trying to find something interesting to watch on television and ended up with a program about aliens populating the planet and building everything on it, etc. Because you just know no humans would ever do anything like that. After seeing more than one person who seemed the embodiment of the word "geek," I turned to Trent and said, "This guy definitely doesn't have a girlfriend!" He was a bit puzzled at first, but he caught on and decided I was terribly clever to say that. Ain't love grand? This phrase has now been tweaked and become part of our everyday language. 

What made me think of this as I got ready to write today is the calendar on the wall above the computer desk. It is still on April, waiting for me to turn the page. Okay, hang on a second, now that you know, I have to fix it. Okay, done. It started me thinking about the buzz surrounding the Mayan calendar. I would like to start by saying I have a great admiration for the Maya. They understood the concept of zero years before anyone else ever did. Maybe that doesn't sound like a big deal to you. That everybody knows if you don't have any, that means you have nothing. True. But the Maya actually gave a numerical value to it. Wow. So, the Mayan calendar, according to researchers who are usually not Mayan (and maybe don't have girlfriends?), says the world will end on December 21, 2012 because that is when their calendar runs out. Hmm. My calendar runs out on Dec 31 each year. I just start a new one. Isn't it possible that they just made this super-calendar that lasted thousands of years and when you got to the end, you were supposed to start a new one? It's really not convenient to have a bunch of gigantic stone calendars laying around for a thousand years before you are going to need them. And some other people say that due to changes in the calendars we currently use, the date has come and gone already.

I don't want to know when the world will end. It kinda makes me cranky to think that God would let us live through months of political ads and then pull the plug on us before Christmas. And hey, if those guys are smart enough to get on t.v. with that oops-sorry-I-just-stuck-my-finger-in-an-electrical-outlet hairstyle, then surely there are humans smart enough to work hard and make really big things. I love your devotion and I respect your intelligence. I think it is possible we are not alone in the universe; it's a really big place. But I also believe in the boundless ability of the human brain and humans' desire to create things of beauty and magnificence, things that will still be here long after their creators are gone. It's the same drive that makes me type these Ravings every day, hoping that people will read them and pass them on. 

So, whatever side of these debates you weigh in on, please remember two things. Have a current calendar. And be kind to those who have no girlfriends. They need love too.