A little grain of hope

So...I can't possibly post all of my thoughts about Hurricane Katrina and losing New Orleans. There's not enough time in the world.
I'm glad that so many Americans are stepping up and helping out. This is the one good thing that has come out of this. It's a little grain of hope, when I had thought that all we cared about was consumerism anymore.

The biggest feeling for me in all of this was helplessness, as I'm sure it was for everybody else. As a spectator, I of course wanted to rent a bus, go down there, and pull people out myself and take them to safety. Many of us tried.
On Friday, I had planned an outing to Philly, but how could I jusitfy a pleasure trip with gas prices so high, and such a looming need to be filled?
Think Carlos Casteneda for a second. It's like a huge gaping hole in the blanket of light that is the collective consciousness of those in a local area, in this case, centered in the south of the U.S., and crying out for help.
How could I go and enjoy myself without first trying to help?

Needless to say, I stayed home. I scoured the web looking for ways to help. I called the Red Cross, and was told that there is a training period, that unfortunately wouldn't work with my job situation. I replied to a need for tech assistance,but that need had been filled.
I looked over the hundreds of entries that were sprouting up all over the web from relatives looking for their loved ones. It seemed like a new Lost and Found board was being created every three minutes.
I thought about this. I wondered how anybody was going to be able to search through all of the found listings for their loved ones. There were just SO MANY.

Now, one of the things that I am very good at is research; particularly on the web, and I can visually sort through information very quickly. I poured through the listings, slapping them into a make-shift database, trying to find at least ONE name that matched both, so I could tell someone that their loved one was safe and where to find them.
I poured over what felt like a million entries, and the grim reality started to set in: So many names were unaccounted for. hundreds.
But then again, a little grain of hope.
I found two people safe and sound, from two different families, and was able to get a hold of their loved ones looking for them and pass on the info.
I know that if I were in their situation, I would want somebody to do the same for me, if they could.

I recieved thanks and blessings from both families, and this was so much better than a trip to the city any day.

Strangest Birthday present ever....

So my best friend told me what she wants to do for my birthday, and man, have I never heard of a better, weirder birthday present!
She is taking me to a class on Surviving the End of Days.
Yeah, it sounds morbid, right? It's actually about preparing yourself to be physically and spiritually ready for what lies ahead.

Many different spiritual groups, including some that have been around forever, like the Rosicrucians, are readying themselves for what they think is going to be quite a showdown/remodeling of society very soon.
The war in Iraq, peak of oil production, and impending oil crisis, the tsunami of this past year, and now, the loss of New Orleans all fortify these beliefs for many.

I just heard on NPR that we are entering a 30-year period of very active hurricanes and weather, so it's only going to get worse, I suppose.

A lot of groups site 2012 as the year of the end of society, probably because the Mayans predicted the end of civilization on December 21, 2012 at 11:11 GMT. Their calendar ends on this date. You can read more here: http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm .

For contrast, the Muslim calendar ends in 2076, and the Jewish calendar ends in 2240. I'm glad somebody is a little more optimistic.

I don't know about all this date business, since decryption of dates and prophecies has been inconsistent througout history. But I do know that society as we know it cannot sustain itself at the pace at which it is moving.
And I see many decisions being made every day, particularly by the House of Bush, that fuel this fire and doom us all prematurely.

I have come to the understanding that speaking sense has little effect, and that perhaps preparing for the destructive impact of a huge population of idiots is all one can do at this point.

Hope to see you all in 2013.