I will be visiting the Yucatan Peninsula in the coming days and will have an opportunity to have a first-hand look again at the glyphs that date the Mayan Long Count. According to that calendar, the last entry of the present age is due to be recorded on Dec. 21 of this year.

Many civilizations have apocalyptic predictions accompanying a vision of their end. The Book of Revelations in the Bible shows us as one of those civilizations.

Colorado is burning and there is a lot of discussion about global warming. The polar ice is turning to water and we are having a tough time making ends meet at home.

There are many preaching the gospel of the end of the world and are betting on the Mayan chronicle. Others are preaching the end to help increase the amount in the church donation box.

Those who are serious about these things know that the only connection between a Mayan calendar round and the end of the world is a never-ending belief in the apocalyptic worst. For the Mayan the end of a calendric round signals the beginning of a new Baktun and the dawning of another era.

The Mayan calendric round is independent of the ebb and flow of the its civilization as the formative, pre-classic, classic, post-classic and end of the Mayan world as it was originally fashioned has been over for centuries. To mix that with its Long Count puts a Western spin on an ancient planning document.

The United States and the West do not have to worry about a Mayan calculated future as their true preoccupation should be the ebb and flow of their own civilization. The notion of democracy and a republican form of government that has been with us since the Greek Classic period is not immune from the forward movement of history or the decadent influences that have infiltrated every part of our social, economic and political fabric.

Our decadence has created such a disregard of nature that the reaction from the natural world is becoming cataclysmic. We in Colorado have a front seat on a most profound change in our weather patterns and its tragic consequences.

The biblical apocalypse is on the agenda of every Christian and our actions amounts to an invitation to get to it as soon as possible. If that is the case, we do not need the excuse of a Mayan calendar point of death and rebirth to justify our unconscious desire to bring our civilization to an end.

There are enough of those who preach the sermons of fire and brimstone as the punishment for those who are not practicing their Christian beliefs. The fires in Colorado bring that notion too close to home.

The country is going through a difficulty period and we need to concentrate on making things better rather than wanting to check out. Also, we do not need to be reminded that we are on the eve of a great American tradition that is the presidential election of 2012.

Colorado has been burning and is in danger of more of the same. Yet it is our optimism and belief in the future that will be bring us through this difficult period.

The burning of Colorado also says more about our shortcomings rather than some type of indication that our world is ending. The end of the world can never be in our hands much less in the calculations of a past civilization.