Post-Winter Solstice 2012

We have lived through three days in the post-Winter Solstice 2012, which marks the end of the Mayan Calendar. I had the pleasure of watching the exact moment of the passage of the Solstice, which took place at 6:12 am EST (11:12 UTC) on December 21, 2012.

There is great hope that the age post Winter Solstice 2012 will become an Age of the Heart–with new-found cultural awareness of solidarity among all people from all corners of the world, with one thousand years of plentiful resources of energy, and with new levels of sensibilities of the heart–such as compassion, forgiveness, and aesthetic expression.

What obfuscates the natural flow of the human heart is the substitution of ideas for feelings. Symptomatic of this substitution is the use of the verb “to feel” in the sense of “to think” or “have an opinion about.” Someone might comment on a short story and say, for instance, “I feel that this story is too long”–whereas what they really mean is, “I think that this story is too long,” or “In my opinion, this story is too long.” In other words, they are expressing a function of the brain (“to think”) with words that are appropriate for the heart (“to feel”). Thus, the brain has a voice everywhere, and the heart finds little echo for its expression.

The brain–that is, our intellectual capacity–has, therefore, been dominating human life. In many ways, we humans have for centuries been living under sway of the brain. Meanwhile the heart has found little room for expression. This is in no way to criticize or put down the brain or the important role it plays in the body. It is simply to point out that the hope for the age of the “Post Winter Solstice 2012” is that humans will find a better balance between heart and brain.

Here is an example of how limited is sometimes the expression of the heart. Suppose there is a horrific national tragedy, as the people in the United States have some times experienced after terrible crimes committed in school. After such a national tragedy, the expressions of grief and sorrow are quickly dispatched to give way to an enormous amount of energy to “think” about what happened and find ways to prevent it from happening again. Of course it is important to find ways to prevent catastrophes, but it is also important to give full expression to grief and sorrow.

It is such expressions of grief and sorrow–rather than the outcries of anger and the demands for greater security–that will strengthen the national heart with increased human sensibilities, emotional sensitivities, and moral fiber. These–more than any laws or efforts to increase security–will more likely help to prevent such crimes.

The promise of the age Post-Winter Solstice 2012 is to allow the heart its due place in relationship to the brain. The new hope is that the human heart will take a position equivalent to that of the brain in the value systems of human life.

Perhaps one reason why it is sometimes difficult to give the heart full expression is the misconception that the expressions of the heart are effeminate or unmanly. I believe the opposite is the case. Individuals who allow themselves full expressions of heart may find a solid core of strength and courage, which had previously been hidden or undetected.

Therefore, I, for one, am very hopeful for the age after the end of the Mayan calendar. I think it is a privilege to be alive in this age, and it is with gratitude and great anticipation that I enter this new age.

Thank you.

Paulo-Juarez Pereira
Ypsilanti MI, USA
Christmas Eve 2012