While I slept deeply last night the earth spun around its axis at 1000 mph. Simultaneously, it moved on its annual trek around the sun at 66,600 MPH. Furthermore, our entire solar system whirled around the center of our galaxy at an astounding 560,000 mph. As I sat quietly drinking coffee and gazing at the sleeping forest, the earth continued to zoom through space. I tried to imagine moving at such tremendous speeds as I lounged with my feet up, feeling only the stillness of the morning. Also while I slept, explosions on the sun will change the atmosphere here, cause Northern Lights. The moon’s movement caused the tides to change overnight. Stars grew or collapsed, folding in on themselves. Asteroids entered the atmosphere and left a glowing trail visible on earth.
Most of us embrace the changes brought by the celestial dances. We like the sunrises that color the horizon as night becomes day. We like the warm change from winter to spring and the holidays, vacations, and new school years that arrive as scheduled. Skiers welcome the snow. Surfers embrace the warmer oceans. We like, no love, the predictable, non-changing changes, like the promise that the sun will rise each morning.
Humans typically embrace technological changes as well: miraculous medical treatments, faster cars, better cameras, smarter phones, more clever video games, new fashions, slicker gadgets. We especially love new medicines that get us out of self-created dilemmas due to lifestyle choices. We appreciate change that makes our life better as much as we enjoy a good sunrise.
Some changes are annoying: we can no longer find our favorite lipstick color, the packaging on our favorite shampoo has changed, our favorite website developed an updated layout, so we must learn to navigate again. I am most annoyed when a grocery store changes it’s layout and I can no longer find things or when a TV special pre-empts my favorite show. Don’t you dare change my routine.
Did you see the movie “Hoosiers?” A high school coach tries to change things up and create a winning team. The townspeople in the movie embody another way we respond to change: resistance. The coach finds that changing things for the better is like walking through mud. Even the kids who have the most to gain show resistance to better coaching. Lipstick changes are one thing, but changing the way we do things in sports teams, schools, meetings, and church, well, that is something else. Institutional change disrupts our comfort zones. The loud cry becomes, “We always do things that way”. So many people, so often, resist meaningful change. An angry group can be fueled by mob mentality and find a way to oust the trouble-maker or shoot the messenger of change, sometimes literally as history shows.
Change that makes our own life better is acceptable. Some change is annoying and often we resist change. Next, the changes we hate: growing older, watching our hair fall out or turn gray, wrinkles, droopy skin. We hate to change the way we think: less is more, people are equal, justice is for all. We hate cultural changes: same-sex marriage, Muslims in our cities, a black man or woman for President. Suddenly, change is no good. Too threatening. Too much. We want to stop the change that makes us uncomfortable. We want to go back to old times. Make us great again, please. I will resist any changes that make me cringe, but I will urge you go make us great again.
My ultimate goal is to direct this conversation towards a spiritual perspective. It wouldn’t take much, however, to align these thoughts with the political mayhem around us today. True, the political situation fueled my thinking about change, which I believe is at the heart of the strife. No change vs. change.
No wonder! Both conservative and progressive refer to the desire for or lack of change. Conservative, by definition means, “holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.” Synonyms include: conventional, orthodox, old-fashioned. Progressive means, “happening or developing gradually or in stages; proceeding step by step.” Synonyms include: increasing, growing, developing, accelerating, escalating. Liberal means, “open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. The left and right are about no change vs. planned, deliberate innovative change.
The “no-changers” miss an important fact. We cannot go back again. I cannot go back and undo mistakes I made. The earth will never go back to what it was. We cannot reclaim the land that was torn up for subdivisions. The Enlightenment was a nice time, but we cannot go back. We cannot go back to an agrarian economy. The earth won’t stop rotating on its axis or around the sun anytime soon. We will continue to whirl through space even when sitting still in a chair. Physical laws of the universe prove that everything everywhere moves slowly towards disorganization.
The only way to fix our problem with change is through innovation and change. New thinking. New solutions. Acceptance that change is inevitable. We need to loosen up, let go of our child-like wishes to live in the safety of our playpen.. We can direct the inevitable change for the good if we are not sitting at home with our arms folded. We can never go back in time; we can only make the future better.
Next time: Spiritual perspectives and solutions about change
Copyright Rev. Jane Willis, 2016
