Realities of Change

I don’t know why people have so much trouble dealing with change. From the time we take our first breath until the last one is gasped, we encounter change. Always. On-going. It is the process of life itself. Without change we do not grow. We do not feel or sense the differences of sensations. Only change allows us the comparison to denote what has happened – what is happening – what is most likely to happen.

We are born and begin to grow. We change shape. We acquire abilities of muscle, of logic, of thinking and of feeling. We learn how to pee and poop in clothing. We learn that is not pleasant eventually and learn to use external facilities for the functions. We keep that sensibility for our lifetime until we lose health, capacities and revert to peeing and pooping in our pants. The cycle of life is complete. It is done.

Well now, so is learning about the world. We denote its presence. We begin to interact with it and see it react to me and me to it. In time we develop skills on dealing with the world around us. You know, listening to the radio, watching TV and wondering what it all means. We engage with our family members and they become the very definition of our universe in early years, but when we enter schooling our universe suddenly expands.

That expansion goes on and on as we encounter more education and development cycles. We are early childhood entities one moment, and elementary students in another, and then middle school and high school. If I have the ability and interest I continue on in college and may have graduate education and professional schooling. All of this encapsulates development resulting in enlargement of the universe. I have changed in so many ways by this time in my development. But then we note the changes going on all around us. Each person is changing, too, just like I did and am still doing.

We then notice that all sorts of things are changing as well. The weather changes hour by hour and week by week and season by season. Over the decades we learn that weather is shifting slowly in different patterns with different consequences. We learn to live in minutely managed changes accordingly.

Just as we learned to creep, then walk, then run, we learn to ride a bicycle and then drive a car. Those cars have changed greatly from 1945 to 2016! They are not at all alike when viewed by the polar extremes of that time spectrum. They mostly have four wheels, but their shapes, size and styles have changed enormously. So too has their locomotion methods. And the exciting part? The future holds vastly different sorts of transportation options for each of us.

Our understanding of the world is different as well. Now we understand chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, medicine and math. So much to understand. Some very well and others not so well – our understanding that is! But we are capable of realizing that so much depends on so many other factors in this complicated universe. We feel whole in ourselves but as we observe the world we come to know that we are not whole. The universe is but it does not have a sense of itself. Only we human beings have that sense. And we are so different from each other. So we see the universe differently and we manage our lives differently within that universe.

So do other nations and their people within. And then we learn to deal with other nations, cultures, peoples, religions and histories. We each have our own national history and culture. Some things we share historically and tangentially, but we have lived our lives somewhat apart and so we gather a gestalt of it all in our very own way. My way, the American way, the North American Continent way, etc. But so too do all other people in their gestalts.

We are not to disrespect each others’ gestalts. They are whole ‘beings’ and have life and value separate from the others. And so do our own. That’s why respect and tolerance of difference is required to get along in the world.

Those differences were built on change. And the adaptation to change. And the acceptance of change. And the acculturation of change.  

These are the realities of change. Those who do not learn to live with change work too hard denying change in the first place. These are the people who are trapped in unreality and social paralysis. How do they know for certain that change will be bad for them? Why don’t they embrace change and get from it the excitement and sense of new possibilities from it?

This is not a conservative or liberal or middle of the road thing. This is not ideological. It is psychological, I think.

Some of us deal with change realistically and creatively. Some of us simply cannot face change. The reality of our governance structures must deal with this vast array of difference. It is not accomplished by dictatorship. No; it is accomplished via caring, process, education and being nice to each other.

Then, when they aren’t looking, we adapt!  Shezam!!

Think we can get away with this? It’s worth a try. If not I see Trumpmobiles in our future.

May 10, 2016