MARY ANN FITZMORRIS / L’Observateur / December 30, 1999

This might have been the last column you saw. There were those whoexpected the world as we knew it to have changed completely just yesterday. By their calculations we should have been back to the GutenbergPress. But I doubted it, and all the other dire Y2K predictions, and I foundthem annoying.

Perhaps it’s just my technological naivete, but I thought we’d be fine. Howpretentious we are to think that something as manmade as the computer would bring civilization to a grinding halt! Forgive me this blasphemy, but if we’re that dependent on a machine, maybe we need to set the cultural counter back to zero.

What a shame that such a pivotal moment in the history of the world has been hyped for all the wrong reasons. I have been looking forward toyesterday with awe since I was the age of my children. What a time to bealive! I did not view Jan. 1 with dread because I’m wasn’t thinking about thecomputer. We changed the year, and the century, which was enough to makeme swoon. But on this New Year’s Day, we ended one thousand years ofhuman history, and began another!!! WOW! Rather than worry about not being able to get money out of the bank (that’s what mattresses are for, aren’t they?), I’ve been pondering how our predecessors must have viewed these seminal moments. I’m sure the turnof each century brought out the naysayers and the fearmongers. How didpeople regard the new millennium of 1000? I was sure this millennium could not live up to its hype. I thought a lotabout hype, an odd thing to be thinking at three in the morning, but that was a few days ago under the brightened moon. That night I awoke thirsty,and the stunningly bright moon lit my path through the living room. Somoved was I by this celestial gift I made the effort to go outside for a better look. (You can still do that safely at the end of this millennium ifyou live in the country.) As I stared at the sky I thought about the factthat another thousand years would pass before someone else would see the same astronomical wonder. What will his or her life be like?It stuck me that this natural phenomenon did live up to its hype, unlike the events we focus on. Movies, concerts, Y2K all seem to disappoint. Maybeit’s that in the end, if you’ll pardon me for this reminder, we’re all, uh, only human.

As I basked in the glowing sky, it occurred to me the timing of this special millennial moon couldn’t have been accidental. It was the eve ofChristmas Eve. I looked at the moon, and the very bright stars all aroundand reflected on the gathering exactly 2000 years ago in that stable in Bethlehem.

I thought of three men with a special delivery who had no car, no road and no maps to help them reach their destination! They relied on the same sky I was looking at that evening and it was certainly enough.

It was cold as I stood there ruminating on a thousand years. I wonderedhow cold all the participants in the greatest of human dramas must have been, in that stable, and walking through the desert.

My mind then wandered to my very shameful behavior only hours earlier as I wove through traffic like Cruella DeVil chasing the puppies; finally screeching up at to music store one minute after closing to get my husband his Christmas present. (They showed their Christmas spirit whenthey let me in.)As I thought about the day, the contrast between the way Christmas started and what it has become made for some deep introspection out there on my lawn in the wee hours of the morning.

When I returned to the house I was still mesmerized by the glow of the moonlight, and I began to pray the Hail Mary. I prayed for humankind.Perhaps life as we know it will end. Perhaps it should.May you have great prosperity in the new millennium. The kind available toeveryone, even the poorest among us. Spiritual prosperity. You can take itwith you!

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