Now that the boys (including my daughter) have got things pretty well in hand at Charlie’s Soap, I have the luxury of getting into mischief.
When our four kids were young, and it was time for bed, it was my job to read them a good bedtime story and clear out the goblins from the closets before turning out the lights. I would shake the closet doors and wrestle the imaginary boogie men to assure the kids everything was alright for the night.
You can imagine that absolutely nothing scares them now, so I have to work on a higher plane to get a rise out of them or anyone else who is in earshot.
Now for a good bedtime story for all the rest of you.
I have been hearing the gloom and doom folks since before I started Charlie’s Soap. Obviously, I didn’t think doom was around the corner when I ventured out into the business world with little more than a hunch and some moxie. It is much the same now as it was in ’74. The Climate Change folks declaring the debate is over before anyone can say “WTF” is a total hoot.
The cover of Time magazine back in 1974, just two years before I developed the formula that would become Charlie’s Soap, proclaimed the coming of the next Ice Age. Yes, the next Ice Age. Each generation has its harbingers of doom and almost always they are dead wrong. Who’s to say when they just might be right?
This Earth and nature is governed by cycles.
See, things run in cycles.
Consider, at the most basic level of the Earth’s science, the carbon dioxide-oxygen cycle. You know this from sixth grade science class: the continuously occurring process whereby animals inhale oxygen and then exhale carbon dioxide, and plants use the CO2 and “exhale” oxygen.
There are more such cycles that affect the Earth. Some cycle through in a breath, some take eons. Here are just a few, handy links included — on the house!
Annual seasonal cycle (you know this one)
172-year solar centric/sunspot minimum cycle
26,000-year Milankovich cycle (wobble of axis through the poles)
100,000-year eccentric orbit cycle
100,000,000-plus year carboniferous cycle
Even the geographical positions of the North and South Poles are shifting unusually quickly. The north/south magnetic field swap cycle may cause earthquakes, and we’ll all be sent back to the Stone Age.
All of which is to say, we really don’t have a clue what we are in for. Some very respected scientists around the globe say the 11-year sunspot, the 172-year solar minimum cycle, and the 11,000 year ice age cycle could be all well upon us this cold, cold spring of 2013.
That’s why I’m thinking back to 1974. A simpler time, maybe, compared to today’s real and imagined horrors. Maybe that’s why I tried to formulate Charlie’s Soap to be as simple and effective as possible.
I hope I’ve rattled your closets. Night night, kiddies.
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