From angelic immortality to the end of the world - and it's all about Hillsborough!
Recent discussion in Hillsborough, and in this blog, of long term projects has got me thinking about how much time I have left - and how much time we have left. It may be less than we think!
How long is "long term" anyway? The DOT has described the proposed Rt. 206 bypass as a solution that would be good for 20 or 30 years. That's fine, but we are only 10 years into a 50 year plan to turn the old 206 into a pedestrian friendly "town center". (Some long time residents will tell you we are 40 years into this plan!) Somehow the calendar doesn't quite add up. We are anticipating the re-activation of passenger service on the West Trenton rail line, discontinued 25 years ago - a plan that can not happen until a new rail tunnel is built under the Hudson River. Who knows when that project will ever get started, or how long THAT might take!
Will any of us be here to see any of these projects completed? - and does it matter? Those of you who remember the Y2K "emergency" recall the dire predictions for December 31, 1999 - utilities would shut down, planes would fall from the sky - but the end of the world was also predicted for Y1K, and many other times in the past 1000 years.
The Shakers thought the world would end in 1792. Jehovah's Witnesses have predicted many end dates: 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, 1994.
Now here come the Maya. An article in today's New York Times Magazine details the Central American civilization's complex calendar system. The Maya, whose civilization flourished during their classical period from 300 to 900 A.D., were experts in astronomy and celestial calendars. They thought of time as a series of "world age cycles", and predicted the current cycle to be completed on December 21, 2012.
What is supposed to happen on December 21, 2012? No one knows. The end of our world - the beginning of a new world - no one is sure what the Maya had in mind. What I want to know is will the 206 bypass be finished? Wait, I just thought of something - isn't the completion of the 206 bypass one of the signs of the apocalypse?!?!?!
All kidding aside, I'm not getting caught up in talk of "end times" - at least not until we near the real computer catastrophe end of the world - Y10K!!! (think about it programmers - and get coding, you only have 7,992 1/2 years to get this fixed!)
If you think the nobypass will be good for 30 years, you are dreaming. If that road existed today, both it and old 206 would have heavy rush hour traffic. That 30 year stuff is pure BS.
ReplyDeleteThey should kill this project unless they can do it right.
Spokey, the DOT has described the bypass as being able to serve its intended purpose for 20 or 30 years. I don't know if this is true or not, but even if it was, the town center is not expected to be built out completely for another 40 years! So you are looking at a redo of the bypass before the town center is even finished!
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