By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
Francisco E. Jimenez
“When is the world supposed to end, again?” I ask myself as I lay in bed at a Motel 6 in Van Horn, Texas. It is December 21, and I am trying to get some rest for the expedition I plan to undertake the following morning to my grandparents house in Arizona.
I am not a believer of astrology or apocalypse predictions, but the thought is still embedded deep in the back of my mind (especially after being constantly reminded of that nonsense with a year of bad jokes on Facebook and Twitter).
Like Michael Scott of The Office once said, “I’m not superstitious, but I’m a little stitious.”
I’ve heard many conflicting theories about the time of the said apocalypse, one of those being 5:11 a.m., which appears to have passed without incident.
But we are not out of the clear just yet, apparently.
Now I am hearing that the actual doom time is nearer to 11 p.m. But is it 11 p.m. central time? Eastern time? I’m pretty sure the location of the Mayan ruins is within the central time zone.
As I lay in the dark, trying to ignore my dog’s rambunctious snoring, I see 11 o’clock come and go. I begin to think to myself, “I knew the Mayans were full of …” suddenly I hear a low rumble outside. It begins to crescendo, to envelope my motel room, everything.
“What the? No way!”
Louder… much louder. Drowning out the snores, and occasional whimpers of my dog, who doesn’t seem to notice (or care) about the sound of our impending doom.
“Shoot!” I thought to myself. “I didn’t even get to watch ‘Django Unchained.’”
Then, when the sound had reached its climax, I hear what sounds like an oversized trumpet. I think back to a verse from Revelations in the Bible which mentions a loud trumpet blast signifying the return of Christ.
“No! I haven’t even gone to church in like three weeks!”
Just as my imagination is getting the best of me, I begin to realize the my motel room happens to be unbelievably close to some railroad tracks.
“…I knew the Mayan calendar was misinterpreted.”
And suddenly, everything seemed alright. I would make it to my grandparents’ house for Christmas. I would make it to 2013. I still had a chance to do something positive with my life.
The next day, as I crossed state lines into New Mexico, and then Arizona, I couldn’t help but feel better about everything. I thought of the scene at the end of the movie “Apocalypto” when the main character encounters the Spanish ships and tells his wife that they must seek a new beginning.
That is what this day felt like: A new beginning.
The mountains had never looked so beautiful. The sky had never been so blue. My sister didn’t seem that annoying anymore.
Not that I’ve never cherished the few moments I get to spend with my grandparents, but this time around I really seemed to take in more. My grandpa’s stories were more intriguing, my grandma’s jokes seemed funnier and the beer was colder. It’s weird.
Anyway, I decided that I would try to start my own “new beginning.”
Not so much a resolution, because let’s face it, most resolutions are usually broken. This was me re-examining everything about my life and seeing how I can be more of a positive influence to myself and others.
I am Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character) in the movie “500 Days of Summer” during the montage to Vagabond by Wolfmother.
Something I’ve seen numerous times on Facebook and Twitter whenever someone returns home to the Valley is the phrase, “I see palm trees,” as in the palm trees that parallel the road as one drives into Willacy County.
Well, that phrase has new meaning for me as I return home and prepare for the New Year. Prepare to return to work with the San Benito News. Prepare to make a new life for myself. I’m coming home, and I see palm trees. Everything is going to be alright.
Then the Cowboys lost.
Read this story in the Jan. 6 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
1 comment
We must alwas be searching for Gods love for we may never know from what direction it may come from. Mayans predictions the end of times swell,tornedos’s , Hurricanes , the list goes on and on for all theses things are good and my dad aways said “these things that are happening and are stirring people’s minds and hearts they have been happening in our world’s history for decades but some people are just just starting to take notice” One might ask me you ready for the end of the world? We do not have man as our guide to tell us when the world may end but rather our Savior Juesus Christ. He left us only with the Holy Spirt to guide within our souls and minds. All we have is our own frame of mind or his or her own time that only leaves us with constantly trying to be prepared. As the Apostle who was close to Christ said in Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do. A constant reminder that we must constanly be actively preparing ourselves never being ready but rather in faith always prepareing ourselves through Holy Sprit.
But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tougues, they wil be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prohesy in part, but when completess comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child , I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of a chilhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith , hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13
May our everyone’s life’s journey’s begin the new year searching for God’s love.