The only Constant is Change.
One of the
people I admire for his hard work, volunteer spirit, personal achievements, family relationships and display
of smarts is a friend named John. You can trust John and take a good example
from him. He is always ready to help others and leads by a good example. John was born to a poor miners
family and was brought up to have self-respect,
work hard and give his best in every situation. He is a great believer that
change is good. Perhaps that is his biggest strength. While most people expand
a large amount of energy on resisting change, John says with a smile, why are people scared of change, Avner?
People do
resist change, and when a change occurs,
they split into two or more camps. Those who want the change, often because they
see some benefit from it, and those who
had things just the way they wanted them or lost something due to the change.
Often people worked hard towards something, and
even if the change is good, they suffer the
loss of face. My friend, Bob the
philosopher, has a favorite saying,
“change is the only constant.”
I remember a
scene from my childhood. A family of newcomers lived with their kids and grandma in an old house. Their street wasn’t paved, and
of course, there were no sidewalks. We lived in a tropical environment where it
rained a lot, and the whole place was full of mud. The old grandma, concerned
about the kids, used to walk around the neighborhood with a hand-sewn canvas
basket and collect pebbles. Buying a load of gravel was not an option yet. She
would go every day, collect the rocks and dump them in front of their home until
she had a nice pad in front of the whole house. When we kids walked on it, she
would watch and tell us to be careful since the “babies” needed a dry place to
play. Some of the boys used to run and sort of skid on the gravel while old
grandma chased after them with a stick shouting for us to go away. I used to laugh
with the rest of the boys, till one day, I saw the tears streaming down her
dusty, wrinkled face. It was not a joke, she really suffered. When I noticed
her crooked back and arthritic deformed hands I actually walked away with
shame.
The town was
growing, and the roads were being paved. Soon came the day when a crew
showed up to pour a sidewalk. Most of the neighbors
waited a long time for that day, and people were even predicting that it won't
be long before we get a street light. Construction was happening all over town,
and the kids were excited about the colorful pipes that were piled by the
school with the promise that there will be a swing set and a slide. The world
was changing, and as far as we kids knew, it was changing for the good. A little
tractor showed up with a scraper blade in front and was working hard blowing
smoke and dust smoothing the ground for the sidewalk when a commotion broke out.
I went to look.
The old
grandma was sprawled in front of the blade of the tractor, and a police siren was coming
closer. A girl, about ten carrying two metal buckets and a dustpan got between
the adults and went to the old woman and said. Grandma, can we have your rocks
for the new slide, please? It is muddy. For the next hour, there was a line of
people carrying buckets full of rocks. A change happened in the right way.
We used to
teach a course at my workplace about
resisting change. Everyone should take
it. I personally resist change and
support change depending on the
situation.
Globally: I
want all the people who are hurt by Climate change to sue and get their money back
from all the other people who are causing
it by refusing to look at the facts.
Nationally:
I want to see Canada become fully independent by being completely self-sufficient even if things will cost more
for a duration.
Provincially:
I don’t want Alberta to go back to the days when our lives fully depended on
oil, and we had no chance of surviving
without it. Many countries have no oil, and
most of our other resources, and are doing very well.
Locally: So
many of us are complaining that the government doesn’t have a new pipeline built yet. I want to see if those people will show
us how to get the Coleman Downtown beautification
project done so we can start on the next
town upgrade.
I am writing
this to my friend John and to all the people who support change and believe
that one can’t stand in the way of progress. Change is good and unavoidable.
This world was created to always change, and it has the capacity
to change back if it’s gone too far, but not without a lot of people being hurt.
Every artist
knows that at some point the piece of art is finished and shouldn’t change anymore. It is one of the biggest challenges to
know when is this point occurring.
A change is usually needed in response to a need or
perhaps it became available due to a new
discovery. Some will want a change, and new opportunities, while others will
protect the old ways which work well for
them. After considering the need for change, it is time to figure out how to
properly effect change. My friend John and others like him, must not wonder why people are scared of change and
consider carefully the “why” and the “how.”
We should
never take the easy way and inflict change on others. If we do, we may lose more than we gain.
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