Is the world ending? Or is it a new beginning?

By S. Derrickson Moore dmoore@lcsun-news.com LAS CRUCES — By next week at this time, we should know if the world has ended. I Googled “end of the world 2012” and got 2,370,000,000 hits. I thought about perusing the more intriguing sites: from “37 food items you should be hoarding now” to out-of-this-world rumors about Pic de Bugarach mountain in southwestern France. Reactions to the alleged Mayan-predicted doomsday on Dec. 21 led French police to ban access to a mountain “thought to open up on that day uncovering an alien spaceship that will carry humans to safety,” according to www.december212012.com, which bills itself as “the official website for 122112 information.” But I’m going with the counter-programming movement. We’re voting for new beginnings. If you agree, join us on Team Rainbow at Nuevo Mundo Fiesta: A Celebration of Life, which will feature, weather permitting, a manmade 600- to 800-foot natural rainbow at 1 p.m. Dec. 22 in the sky over Young Park. Fred Stern and I conjured up the fiesta while strolling through a Downtown Las Cruces Ramble. Fred has made rainbows as large as 2,000 feet all over the world, including the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, a Palestinian-Israeli Peace Conference in Israel and Gaza, Colorado River Tribes protesting the placement of a nuclear dump site on sacred land and over the United Nations Building in New York City as a visual metaphor for world peace. Here in Las Cruces, he has created rainbows for Court Youth Center and Mesilla Valley Hospice. Fred makes the calculations and directs when and where his helpers, the Las Cruces Fire Department, “will pump water into the air to create an artificial rainfall, which will refract the sun’s light to create the natural rainbow in the sky, in the northwest corner of Young Park.” In addition to the rainbow, there will be activities for kids and entertainment provided by Bob and Melody Burns and other performing artists. In the spirit of a better future, the rainbow is being dedicated to kids. Donna Richmond, La Piñon’s executive director, sees the rainbow as “a tribute to children in crisis and all community service providers who serve them. We’ll have a table with information to hand out and invite other community providers to do the same to raise awareness.” If you’d like to help provide entertainment or activities for the event, there’s still time to contact Stern at 575-621-3065, or e-mail rainbowfred@gmail.com. A few insider’s tips to get the most out of your rainbow experience: bring an umbrella and/or a raincoat if you’d like to walk through the rainbow. It’s also a great photo op if you have a yen to share still or video shots of your loved ones at the end of a rainbow-on-demand. Stern will be holding “rainbow rehearsal” at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Young Park, if you can’t make it Saturday, or are convinced the world will end before the Nuevo Mundo Fiesta. Whatever your views, it’s a wonderful time to say a heartfelt prayer or two, in the spirit of the Biblical pledge of a rainbow covenant in Genesis 9:13, after Noah and the floods, or, in this blessed season, of the profound path and covenant with humanity forged by the birth of a baby, more than 2,000 years ago. S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at 575-541-5450. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.