Change Is the Only Constant

Nothing stays the same. This much I've learned. Basically everything we know about the universe suggests that all things come to a moment of dissolution or transformation. What is doesn't endure, but passes. Time is a river; life is a journey. Just as there was a beginning, there will be an end. This is well known, and yet we seem inclined not to believe it. Or if we do believe it, we tend not to think about it or let such knowledge interfere with our more mundane existence, which we generally conduct as if everything were going to continue just as it is, or as we desire it to be.

So, what's the alternative? I really don't know. If I had an answer, or if I had one I thought was worth sharing, I'd probably be like one of these obnoxious characters who think they've got everything figured out and insist on telling everyone what we need to do to be happy or healthy or rich beyond our dreams or to be just like them. Of course, what is really amusing as well as quite confounding is the number of seemingly normal human beings who are willing to succumb to such nonsense, willing that is to believe that some one individual has discovered some truth so profound that it will somehow rescue them from what they must otherwise fear is a meaningless or at least misguided existence. All of which would be perfectly fine with me if these folks just would not insist on getting everyone else involved in their own specific delusion or quest for meaning. And even supposing against all odds and human history that they have stumbled onto a truth so profound they can't resist sharing it, why should everyone have to acknowledge the same truths?

I realize, of course, that this presents all sorts of problems. So setting aside for the moment religious beliefs, which are generally by definition beyond the reach of reason, let's consider global warming. It seems to me beyond dispute that the earth is currently in a period of increasing average temperatures. The evidence is just about everywhere. The records are hard to dispute or ignore. There seems to be some argument about what may be causing this. Some say it's human activity; some say no it's just normal fluctuation. But this old earth is definitely getting warmer by the year, and soon I suspect we will see more profound climate changes and rising sea levels and we will just have to adjust if we can. I suppose some might argue about that, but so far as I can discover we have little power over the forces of nature. I always think of Hotspur's rejoinder when Glendower said he could call spirits from the vasty deep: "Why, so can I, so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?"

Who knows, perhaps if we changed our use of fossil fuels and power consumption we could gain a few extra years, but change will come. Nothing stays the same; nothing lasts. And that's not good or bad. That's just the way things are. Change got us to this point, and just as surely it will take us onward to some other place a little further down the road. Experience of our own lives should teach us this lesson, but I'm not sure it really does. Still, I suppose it never hurts to plan ahead. That's probably why Noah built an ark. Change gonna come.