Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
When it comes to taste in movies, I am as shallow as your stereotypical Valley Girl. I don't watch anything sad, I don't watch anything serious, and I don't watch anything violent. Maybe it was all those pretentious foreign films I endured as a teenager in a misguided attempt at sophistication, but now I only go to see lightweight, chick-flicks.
And so under normal circumstances, my "No way, Jose" list would most definitely include the newly released, post-apocalyptic, "2012."
But two weeks ago, "normal circumstances" were not in place, as I was soundly outvoted by a soccer team's worth of sixteen-year-old guys whom I had the pleasure of chaperoning to a tournament in Tampa, Florida. Their collective need to save face nixed a stupid romantic comedy, and I was forced to overcome my cinematographic cowardice (if nothing else, this business has taught me when to take a stand and when to fold 'em gracefully).
Why "2012?" Well, unless you've been living under an eschatological rock, you've no doubt heard that 2012 is the year when the Mayan calendar (and possibly human existence) comes to an abrupt halt.
Not because the Mayans had run out of wall space either, but because - at least according to Hollywood - massive solar flares cause the earth's core to heat up, heave up, and reconfigure the planet into a place where, among other dastardly things, Wisconsin becomes the new North Pole.
In any case, lots of mayhem. In fact it was about 45 minutes into the big-screen end of the world that I got to thinking about how Western culture likes to see time as linear - broken up into precise little chunks and relentlessly marching forward.
We don't think of time happening in recurring cycles, such as moon phases or the seasons. And we don't imagine it as a pendulum swinging back and forth. To us, time is straight and steady and tied to a calendar.
It's the same way we think about business.
