The More Things Change

I guess it's that time of year. Almost two years ago I wrote about life and change in February of 2007 as I moved to a new job. Now the folks responsible for my movement are themselves moving on. And so it goes. Since then there have been many other changes. Sometimes it seems nothing endures except change. "Life is change," or so said the Jefferson Airplane, "how it differs from the rocks." But, of course, rocks change too, just ask a geologist.

Amidst all of the changes we look for patterns, hoping to stay ahead of the curve, but there always seems to be a surprise lurking somewhere out ahead, something we didn't see coming until it was too late. Then the patterns themselves change and we realize we were confusing foreground and background.

The whole world appears to be caught up in just such a moment. Many things we thought we knew, it now turns out we didn't understand at all. And some of the things we assumed were no longer true, came back to bite us when we were least expecting it. Then again, it always seems to happen that way, you just need to take a long enough perspective and you begin to realize the more things change, the more they stay the same. We tell ourselves we "won't get fooled again," but then we always do.

Now we know, you can't live on credit forever. Eventually you have to pay up, unless you're a bank and you can talk the government into paying your bills for you. Still, it does seem sometimes that life itself is one enormous Ponzi scheme, which when I think about it is better than my normal take, which is that life is a disease of matter.

So what can you do? Me, I'm going to light out for the territories and see if I can get a line on old Huck. He's someone who knew a thing or two about confidence men and how to live with them. Big con, little con, take your pick and enjoy the ride.