Why do gardeners live for so long? One reason might be that they are always planning ahead – next week, month, year, even decades away. So the idea that the Maya predicted an abrupt ending to our world on 21 December 2012 might be greeted with a healthy shovelful of well-aged manure.
In fact the Maya had it one better than us today. While we are accustomed to gloom and doom “end of the world” scenarios from those of an environmental, political and religious bent, the Maya believed in cycles. Their calendar and astronomy ran 2.5 million days into the future, or roughly 7,000 years – then repeated itself.
Boston University archaeologist William Saturno, who has excavated Mayan remains extensively, wrote last June in National Geographic:
It’s important to understand that the ancient Mayan predicted that the world would continue. That was their point. They didn’t predict the end of the world. There would be cycles, new beginnings – but never endings . . . The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. We keep looking for endings. It’s an entirely different mind-set.
Indeed it is, especially when it comes to the tabloid press, Hollywood scriptwriters and those that dwell in the fuzzy realms of pseudoscience. Despite the very best efforts of these peddlers of perversity, the green thumb fraternity and yes, even black-thumbers, can be assured their hobby is safe for many a year yet. Our planet has been getting along for some four billion years and is expected to last at least that long into the future. Plan gardening ahead in confidence.
Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.
