Sunday 14 October 2018

The only Constant is Change.


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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