“The one constant in our lives is change.” Dan Gilbert
One thing I can say about our lives in the USA for the past 4-5 years: As a nation, we’ve been stuck. The tedious battles between left and right have gotten us nowhere but alternating states of anger and angst.
A New Future
Just when many of us felt no cure in sight for the divisive drawing lines in the sand of our flawed two party system we (as a entire nation) now find ourselves confronted by a mutual enemy so monumental that it requires a non-partisan effort to manage our defenses and ultimately propel us into a whole new future—a future built seemingly on the acceptance of uncertainty and a resolve to work together, at least for a while. Who knows? But no solution to the current cataclysm will come about without “working together.”
Maria Popova summarized our situation so eloquently…
The great gift of such periods is that they invite us to question our certitudes, our givens, these seemingly sure foundations that have lulled us into complacency — for it is only by being jolted out of our complacencies, cultural or personal, that we ever reach beyond the horizon, toward new territories of truth, beauty, and flourishing.
The “I Don’t Know” of Change
I like the idea that in times of ultimate duress we find ourselves forced to question all that we consider to be “certain,” for life itself is a constant movement within the realms of uncertainty. No matter our “goal setting” methodologies, the only thing we know for sure is that we can’t be sure about much of anything.
Actually, I like this attitude about life. I like saying, “I don’t know.” It is such an attitude that pushes me deeper into a state of faith and back into “discovery mode,” which leads me to be observer, participant, and innovator. Yes, I play an active role in this “working together” mode, requiring me to participate in alternative communal behaviors like sheltering in my home and social distancing in the very few times I am out.
Yes, change is here now and the ripple effect will linger for years. I don’t know what we will look like as a country in the future, but I do know it will not be the “same ole, same ole.”
Let’s Get Personal
And another note: each of us surely will be changed personally. And that is a good thing, for as psychologist Dan Gilbert wrote: “Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’ve ever been. The one constant in our lives is change.”
No, we are not finished, thank God. Our blessed country is not finished. Our lives have been forever altered, and I intend to appropriate the lessons I can glean from this time.
Change is Here
Accept It… There Really Isn’t a Choice
Photo courtesy of RomoloTavani at istockphoto
NOTE: Quotes are lifted from Maria Popova at www.brainpickings.org
Thanks Charlie! This was a helpful post – perspective challenging is a good thing! We’ve been thrown in the deep end of change and finding out that we can swim.
Tis true, Rhonda. Yet I must admit: it helps if you’re an introvert like me!