The Last Multiple Choice Test of the Twentieth Century
by Robert & Christine Gerzon
Question: What will happen on December 31, 1999, at the stroke of midnight?
(A) The millennium miraculously ushers in a new golden age for humankind.
(B) Midnight triggers global apocalypse and the end of the world.
(C) Some Y2K computer malfunctions and isolated terrorist acts occur.
(D) A hyped-up New Year’s Eve celebration is followed by a collective hangover and then back to business as usual.
Whichever answer you choose, the amazing thing is that this occasion is being anticipated by more people than any other single event in history. And we are awaiting it with an equal mixture of anxiety and excitement because the truth is that none of us can know for sure what will happen. Each of these options, represents the viewpoint of a part of our population and perhaps even a part of each of us.
In our more sober moments, we may suspect that our species desperately needs a wake-up call as we hurtle faster and faster along on a technology-driven collision course with Mother Nature. We fight off that uneasy feeling that our money-mad materialistic society might be due for its day of reckoning with Fate, God, or whatever you want to call it. Is there a part of you, even if it’s only a small part, that secretly hopes for some sort of exciting apocalypse — a "Great Flood" that will cleanse the earth and restore balance and harmony?
Our whole obsession with Y2K shows that there’s a part of us that yearns for a major change in our lives, in our society. I believe that our deepest desire, the sacred impulse awakened by this moment, is for a spiritual change, a new birth. We hope that somehow, something will be different when we wake up on this first weekend of the new millennium. We hope life will be better, the world will look brighter, we’ll all get along better, and our lives will have more meaning. We may even secretly hope that a "Messiah" or something miraculous will happen to set the world right again.
Perhaps our biggest fear is that nothing much will happen and January 1, 2000 will dawn with everything just the way it was the day before. We will pry open a bloodshot eye, notice that the power’s still on, turn over and go back to sleep. And that, is the most boring, and realistic, scenario. A week after all the hype and hoopla of New Years Eve 2000, our lives will probably be pretty much the same.
So how can we best prepare for this much-heralded event? If we believe the media, we should be stocking up on batteries, bottled water, canned goods and toilet paper. Isn’t it a little strange that here at the cusp of the new millennium what we get is some suspiciously familiar advice: "When you feel anxious, buy more stuff!"
Instead of stocking up, perhaps we should be taking stock — of our lives and of our future. At this great moment we will all take a collective, symbolic step into an unknown future. It is a mythic passage that reminds us of the drama recounted in so many fairy tales — what will happen at the stroke of midnight? A miraculous transformation — or a missed opportunity?
Because of the media’s much-hyped anxiety about terrorists in Times Square and Y2K computer meltdown, are we forgetting to pay attention to deeper and more important anxieties? How will our time in history be remembered — as one of rampant excess, inequality, destructive warfare and an obsession with technological gadgets? Where are we headed as a species on this planet? Are we making our planet increasingly unlivable for future generations? What sort of values are shaping our society?
And closer to home — how are we living our lives? How are we nurturing our precious human connections? How will we be remembered by those whose lives we have touched? As Maya Angelou writes, "nobody but nobody can make it out here alone."
This millennial stroke of midnight is a special moment. The most remarkable thing about this much-heralded occasion is that it does not arise from any natural phenomenon or celestial event. Both the anxiety that our computer-dependent world will crash and the excitement of a major calendrical passage are entirely of our own making.
It is we who make this moment special, simply by paying special attention to it. This amazing global rite of passage can serve to remind us that every moment is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. All we need to do to make any moment special is to pay attention to it. All we need to do to make each other feel special is to pay attention to each other.
This midnight moment is an amazing demonstration of the unique gift that we all have as human beings, the power of awareness (and the responsibility of using it to pay attention to what’s important). If the "magic doesn’t happen" on January 1, 2000, don’t feel you have to wait another thousand years — every day can be a great adventure, pregnant with the potential for heartfelt, spiritual change in our lives.
Wishing you all the Light and Love of the season!
Find out more about Robert Gerzon’s highly acclaimed book Finding Serenity in the Age of Anxiety.
Find out more about Robert Gerzon’s Counseling and Coaching Services.
Read more articles by Robert Gerzon online at:
http://www.gerzon.com
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