Again, the Subject of Change

Change is usually not something that is wished for, but rather something that is called for.  As an example, use yourself.  When you were first born, your needs were basic:  to be fed, to attend to your body's needs, to be loved.  In no time at all, those needs changed, because you had grown into a new stage of your life.  Your entire life has been one of change from the simple fact of your growth as a Human Being.  Take a good look at yourself today and notice the changes that have occurred since the time of your birth.  It's astounding!  A big change was leaving home for the first time as an independent adult, or finding a spouse, or having a child.  All of these events brought about personal change, often not wished for but necessary if your life were to succeed in a satisfactory and fulfilling way.  Your ability to flow with that change makes all the difference in your life.

Now we can change our focus from a personal one to a societal one.  Most of us have read history books, not just of the United States, but of the world as a whole.  Our recorded history shows the same set of changes that occurred to you as an individual, the change that is and always has been a response to growth.  The world of today is vastly different from the one we read about thousands of years ago, or even hundreds of years ago, or even ten years ago.  Growth goes on uninterrupted, no matter what the wish is, and with that growth, the change that flows hand-in-hand with it.  If you were to attempt to impress social or political mores of two centuries ago on the United States today, you at first would be laughed at, and later, seriously considered a lunatic.

Can you remember life before cell-phones?  Can you not witness the power of change, instrumented by only one device?  How long did you resist this change?  Do you still have a "land-line" in your home?  Why?  For "old-time's-sake"?

The past, the "good old days", is, in our memory, alluring.  Everyone remembers the good old days, not realizing that today will be someone else's good old days.  Change can be fearful while it occurs, and we find comfort in the "stability"of the past, not remembering the tension of change even then.

I find change fascinating, and my only regret at the time of my passing from this world will be that I will not be around to witness the future changes.  For example, I would like to have the opportunity to witness this planet from space, something that in the future will be just an every-day, ordinary experience.

Embrace change.  It's necessary, and it's good.