What if our world had an expiration date stamped on it, like the milk in your refrigerator?

What if the exact time of said expiration was 10:08 pm central time Dec. 21, 2012?

Would knowing that simple fact change your life, your philosophy, and your spirit?
It did for me. So I'm "paying it forward" with this Blog. "Paying it Forward" is an idea first floated in a 2000 novel about existential exponential change, which hypothesized about what might be the ultimate impact on the world, if just one person did something really good for 3 other people and then they repaid him by doing a deed good for 3 different people. There has even been a nonprofit foundation set up to promote this simple, powerful plan for affecting global change. Here is the URL: http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/home.html

Anyway, I'm not connected with the group or book, or the subsequent movie about it, that starred Kevin Spacey. I'm just hoping to contact my 3 people with this Blog, using the Internet and written word...two mediums that I happen to be most familiar with.

Which brings you...to me. I should now tell you a little about myself, holding true to the first rule of literature, which is to first know something about your author, so that you can place his/her work in the proper context and perspective. Zen Nebraska's author was - in order of appearance - a fetus carrying Irish-German DNA, a farm boy living in a Nebraska villiage (the name of which roughly translates to Pa-Hur in the Pawnee language), Great Plains gypsy, communications student, husband, network radio broadcaster, father, coin dealer and currently, a journalist. I usually write about such droll topics as agriculture, so you may have happened across one of my stories in the past few years, if you are a US grain trader or happen to read the right newspaper on a REALLY slow news day. I'm told I have an "old soul", a purple-brown aura, and an IQ of about 140; although if I have any natural talent, it's not wisdom or brilliance...it's research and synthesis...a Scorpio's simple knack for ferreting out secrets, making connections between a disparate set of seemingly unrelated facts, and then explaining their potential importance to other folks.

"The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way...To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion -- all in one." - John Ruskin (1819-1900) artist, scientist, poet, environmentalist and philosopher.

It is the very process which all decent reporters go through in development of any news story. And I think I've stumbled on a HUGE story, one with universal impact, one that I am morally obligated to tell, regardless of the effort required or any personal consequences. What is it? Well, as REM sang..."It's the end of the world, as we know it."

Basically, reputable research and evidence from highly-placed sources all suggest that "something" global in scale has been marked down on mankind's day-planner for the winter solstice of 2012. Just like your morning commute, there are a lot of potential "vehicles" available to the universe to get us from Point A to Point B and "achieve" this end...meteor strikes, pole shifts, the rise of machines and the second coming of Christ, just to name a few. (more on the possibilities during future blogs). Just think 'apocalypse' and consider variations on the theme. Yes, it seems we truly are on AC/DC's "Highway to Hell."

I imagine you're thinking..."This CAN'T be good!!" I understand completely. I actually became very depressed upon realizing exactly what this story was telling me, but that was before I came across the following quote from author Kevin Williams, which gave me hope, and the idea for this Blog.

"The goal of apocalyptic prophecy is to warn people, to prevent it from happening. The reason prophecies are given to humanity is to change current trends and change enough people so that the prophecy will be diverted. Well-known prophecies that were foretold to occur around the millennium have not happened. Skeptics point out that this proves these prophecies to be false. But a better understanding of prophecy reveals that either (1) or (2) is true:
(1)
The prophecy was successful in permanently diverting the outcome by the raising of the world's consciousness.
(2)
Because the prophecy gives an exact date, the prophecy may still be valid and the date may be wrong.
Prophecies from very credible sources rarely give an exact date. Even Jesus said he didn't know the date and time when he would return. This should be a lesson to everyone who comes across a prophecy with an exact date."

As I am convinced that some very smart people have pinned down our next "appointment with the apocalypse" pretty precisely (more on that in future blogs also) that leaves us pinning humanity's hopes for a last-second comeback on (1).

Williams is also webmaster of a great website that contains a lot of information gleaned from people who have had near-death experiences, and also from researchers in this area. (URL: http://www.near-death.com/index.html). It appears that many people return from a visit to "the other side" telling very similar tales, specifically regarding the malleability of our so-called "future". Here is one telling excerpt:

"One of Margot Grey's NDE research subjects stated:
During my experience ... I was also shown events that are likely to happen in the near future, but was made to understand that nothing is absolutely fixed and that everything depends on how we choose to use our own free will, that even those events that are already predestined can be changed or modified by a change in our own way of relating to them. (Grey, 1985, p. 123)."

Well, THAT'S good news...so I'll leave you with that hopeful thought and a promise to be back soon with more details "on this breaking story". Until then...as Bill and Ted were fond of saying..."Be excellent to each other!"