CHANGES

A young man sat in our living room a week ago, explaining to me how to use the new WiFi system we had purchased. In the course of our conversation, something was mentioned about the upcoming Grammy Awards show that would be on television. He asked, “Who is your favorite singer?” I answered, “Gordon Lightfoot.” He replied to my answer with a completely blank stare. “You’re not familiar with the name?,” I asked. He shook his head No. “But, I’ll bet you are familiar with some of his mega-hit songs,” I plunged ahead pointlessly. “You know If You Could Read My Mind or Sundown or The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, right?,” I asked. He maintained the same blank stare. “Rainy Day Lovers? Early Morning Rain? Ribbon of Darkness? Race Among the Ruins? The Circle is Small? Beautiful?” “I’m sure they were all beautiful,” he answered, unaware that Beautiful was the name of a Lightfoot hit. He finally spoke: “I’m kinda into Shaboozey and Charli XCX.” I responded with a blank stare of my own, thinking that Shaboozey sounds like a drink, and XCX must be some sort of imported sports car.

Tempus fugit. Time flies, and tastes change. Tastes in music, apparel, cuisine, architecture, and art are distinctively unalike from one generation to another. How we shop has changed. I still like to go to department stores, hardware stores, and bookstores to make purchases. I’m in the minority, it seems, as most people nowadays prefer simply to shop online at Amazon. How we communicate has changed. I grew up with rotary phones and party lines. My children have no idea what either of those terms means and would be horrified by the idea of a party line (one phone line shared by several different households, each having to wait their turn to make a call).

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The only thing constant is change.” He made a good point. I’ve lived long enough to see a lot of it. And most that I have seen has made the world a better place. There are always downsides. The Internet and social media have opened the gates to misinformation, resulting in conspiracy theories and the loss of friendships. At the same time, computer technology enhances everything from medical science to agricultural protocols to general education for people who otherwise might not be able to afford such. Artificial Intelligence depresses individual creativity and also provides students, if they are so inclined, with a utensil to cheat their way through every term they are assigned to submit. And yet, AI has the potential to create in minutes both analytical and strategic platforms that would take you or me weeks or months to generate. Additionally, it promises to provide medical breakthroughs that can offer treatments and cures for what were previously terminal illnesses. While many of us were lamenting what appeared to be the slow death of institutional religion (people attending church in America has dropped in the past seventy-five years from 60% of the population to 21%), something new emerged that is changing that trend. Online worship is a relatively recent phenomenon. Apparently while the number of people who physically attend houses of worship remains on the decline, the number of people accessing worship online is rising rather dramatically. People are rediscovering faith-involvement, but the way the majority are doing so has changed.

I wonder sometimes if I am changing for the better. Change, as Emerson reminded us, is inevitable. My ophthalmologist said to me some time ago, “You have drooping eyelids.” I answered, “If you think those are droopy, you should see my biceps.” Look at an old photograph of yourself from twenty years ago. Then, look in the mirror. “The only thing constant is change.” Physical change happens. But, what about emotional change? Spiritual change? Philosophical change? The changing of attitudes, relational styles, priorities, or perspectives? Between classes one day this semester, I bumped into a professor who teaches down the hall. We began to discuss our deep concerns for some things that are going on in our society at the moment. I confessed that I too often bounce around between fear and anger. He answered, “I am concerned, too. There’s no way around it. But, I am also convinced that I have a particular life span, and I refuse to allow temporary dilemmas to rob me of the joy and peace I desire and deserve. So,” he said, “when I see something bad going on, I do something good as my little way of trying to correct things. That way, I’m able to sleep at night.” The world around him is changing, and not always in a good way. But he has decided in the midst of all that (as Ghandi put it) to become the change he hopes to see.

The world changes. So do we. Our personal question ought to be, “Am I orchestrating my changes in order to live a meaningful life, make a positive impact, and find joy along the way? Am I doing my part, whether large or small, to be an agent of helpful change?” The Times, They Are a’Changing, sang Bob Dylan. My favorite version of that song was by Peter, Paul, and Mary. It’s a great song with a lesson worth learning. Maybe it’ll show up on a CD by Shaboozey or Charli XCX.