Nostradamus & the need to feel important

We (as a culture, specifically an American culture) did it again....and this time it was big!

I don't know if you have caught the ads (or even the program) for the History channel's new show - The Lost Book of Nostradamus. (for the record, I have not watched it and will not not watch it for the reasons below)...

I have become more and more aware and less tolerant of our current need to feel important in the `grand scheme of history'. It is my contention that, as our lives get busier and busier, they begin to mean less and less. Therefore we (as a society) have begun to feel that we need to show the world and our grand kids kids that WE were important. In an effort to feel important, we have been quick to declare the important events in our lives, even before they happen.

Case in point, The Lost books of Nostradamus. The contention of the show is that the world is ending soon and it was for told by Nostradamus through numerology and deeply coded messages. I have watched the longer preview for this show, and to be completely honest, it seems that they are making the things that Nostradamus wrote (which is debatable also) fit with current events.

I don't really want to debate the factual case for Nostradamus claims, but more about the need for all of us to be relevant in 4 years, let alone 400 years.

Who is Franklin Pierce?

We have taken this need to be important to the extreme with this doomsday view of the world. Almost to say "We are so important that the world will end on our watch"

The John Hagee's and Tim LeHay's have made a fortune preaching this message.

We also find this need for "see look at how great our generation is" in sports a lot.

When Michael Jordan retired, all the sports folks were up in arms about who would replace his as the "greatest player to play the game....never entertaining the notion that there might not be someone.
"Most major sports leagues have named "The greatest players in X amount of years" in the last few years. All of them stacked with today's players. I seriously doubt that Lebron James would hold a candle in the early league with players who traveled by bus, playing multiple nights in a row, getting pounded night after night under the basket because there was no 3-point line to hang out at and just wait for the ball. Those early guys could pound the ball and run circles around "The King"...the "next Michael Jordan".

This was especially true after 9-11 and all the "We will never forget" memorabilia. While I do not discount the importance of that event and think that was a terrible event that will impact the world for centuries....people also said that about Pearl Harbor...do you know the date of Pearl Harbor? The president of the US said "that date would live in infamy"...and we don't know it.

All of this is to say, stop worrying about standing the test of time, and start doing something that will put you up in that category...

As for me, I am living today as if tomorrow is my last. I think that is how we should live every day. I am busy "sucking the marrow out of life". If the world ends tomorrow, I think I am ready and feel no need to be compared to the Abe Lincolns and MLK's. No lie, I hope someday I can do something that will impact the world, but for now, I am interested in chugging along and making the world around me better.

Oh yeah, Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the US...