Change Good or Bad?

Change and Life go hand and hand. This past week those realities have become apparent to me in many ways. Nothing stays the same. We change, we learn, we grow. As we get older we grow in some ways we would rather not. The price of staying the same becomes higher: more exercise, trips to the gym and regular appointments with our hairdresser just in an effort to try to stave off change.

Photos of years ago remind us that things are not the same. Kids grow up and don't stay little forever. Some photos are of people who have passed on... this is some of the most difficult kind of change. Some photos we look at may be of people, perhaps that were classmates long ago , that we can't even remember. Clearly what was seemingly important yesterday is not today.

Our thinking changes too. We grow and experience more and how we perceive something today may not be how we perceive it tomorrow. I guess that is why one day the Democrats are in Power and then the winds shift and now people are ready to turn to answers from a Republican. Or as parents you have a colicky newborn and you think this is the most difficult time in your life and then they grow and become teenagers. Enough said. If we are lucky, we get to see them grow up and change into responsible adults that would be a welcome change.

Change is often difficult especially when it involves someone or something that you rely upon. Employment comes to mind especially in an economy where upheaval is the story of the day. You can be a victim of downsizing or lose out because changes take place in leadership forcing you to examine and to re-examine your career path. Who Moved My Cheese? was a book I read about a decade ago. I was younger then and the message of moving forward and taking on new challenges was an eye opener. I haven't thought about this book since then but it just came to mind writing this as now I find myself at a point where I can relate to my cheese moving and not liking it at all. As I struggle with my feelings and remember the simple lesson of this book I still am resistant to embracing change and moving on running through the maze. This book presupposes that change is always good but is it? My thoughts about change above don't necessarily lead me to this conclusion. Divorce is a change but is it good? Values have changed dramatically in America is this good?

I found a good bit of criticism searching the internet today regarding the thinking advanced by this book. Specificially that this way of thinking is advanced by entitities like money driven corporations to silence dissention among their employees by suggesting that they either accept change as enevitable, adapt and move on or starve and get fired. Is this really enlightenment? What ever happened to right and wrong? Can you always just go along with change?

Perhaps some changes require us to re-evaluate our values and priorities. Unlike the mice running around in the maze in the book, we have a voice. To use it does not mean that we are just complaining. What if instead the cheese is being replaced with something that is inferior and staying in the maze is not the answer. Ultimately, I guess this will require that we accept that change is inevitable. But how we respond when confronted with some changes over which we have no control , may mean that we have to leave the maze altogether.