2012

Carpe Diem for Eternity!

Now that I have officially been invited to join the Facebook group "2012 is not the end of the world" about a million times, I feel poised to comment. Many thought streams float through my brain as I contemplate the possibilities. Admittedly, I am in the full throngs of what the "What to Expect" books call 'baby brain' I find myself thinking, in my profound capability to string together words, if 2012 were the end of the world, would it really be the end of the world? Obviously a redundant sentence, of course the earthly realm that we identify with our physical senses would cease to exist, but what about the rest of it? Heaven, the mystic, even the social order of humanity. Even if humanity did not exist in a physical sense, surely all of these things that have no tangible physical construct would still be out there. But then that begs the question, if a tree falls in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, does it really make a sound? What good are ideas, social order, and religion if there is no one left to live them? What if the 'real world' has nothing to do with the world at all? So now I am left with a dilemma; to carpe dium or not carpe dium.

When I was a kid I really struggled with the division of reality, constructed reality (TV, social constructions) and my active dream and play world. At about 7 I remember facing real crises that I could not articulate to any of the grown ups in my life about whether or not the situations I was facing were a dream, a constructed reality or actual reality. Figuring out the divide between real and imaginary is a natural part of growing up, but admittedly my life circumstances exasterbated a part of childhood that for most is a blip where they realize Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy are social constructions, not real beings. My neice Shae stayed with me this summer and I remember her asking on several occasions whether people, or things existed in the "really world" or not. For example, I remember her asking me if "Han-tana" short for Hannah Montana was a girl in the "really world" or not. When looking through some video's of a friend's vacation on Facebook there was one clip of a jellyfish that was completely see through, and she couldn't believe that the jellyfish was a part of the really world and Han-tana was not. The really world is a confusing place indeed.

I am thankful for this confusing time in my childhood, while I never held onto any irrational beliefs in fairytale characters, it certainly helped me to hold onto something that I think many people lose. I am really 2 Melissa's. The first Melissa is tied to the earth, going to work, baking cookies, blogging, and the other Melissa is somewhere in the clouds. Cloudy Melissa says, of course the real world has nothing to do with the world. I don't think I would be able to get up and face the world each day if I thought the world was just what I could see. Cloudy Melissa is living for eternity! Earthy Melissa is harder to persuade, she runs the show 90% of the time, rarely acknowledging the mystic, or imagination, but she does get to see nature and humanity in all of its beauty and spledor. Earthy Melissa wishes she'd seize the day more