Change is the only real constant we have in life. I dislike change. I really do. It’s annoying how much I dislike change. A change in routine brings with it the arguments of why we have to do something. Do we really need to swap the locations of the forks and spoons in the cutlery drawer? Why did we have to reorganize the closet when how everything was already organized well?
I have a rigid view of change. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Don’t invent problems so you can find solutions.
Yet, as a society, it is expected people will change. If people did not change their behaviours, opinions, or circumstances, we would have no progress. Why change and evolve to using indoor plumbing, the horseless carriage, or harness electricity if we are happy to wallow in our own filth, travel slowly, and use candles to read our handwritten bibles by.
I don’t resist change because I am lazy. I resist change because I fail to see the need to change something just for the sake of changing it. Why reinvent the wheel? I also resist change just to resist those who try to foist it on others.
But… when I think something needs to change, I am all for it. It just takes a while to buy in to making that change.
I know I need to change my diet and exercise more, I am not buying into it fully yet. I needed to change camera lens to a new set up to take better photos indoors – that was easy to do. There is a paradoxical affect of the ease of making the change, and the benefit. A new lens improved my photography, was easy to switch, but cost money. Once completed, it immediately changed my indoor sports photos. An easy fix. Changing diet and adding exercise is long, drawn out, boring, and the effects of this will not be immediate. It will take a few years (or millennia) to undo 47 years of bad choices, bad habits, and tasty junk food.
Of course there is empirical evidence that shows change works. I don’t smoke and haven’t touched a cigarette since January 1, 1997. My lungs are pretty good and my allergies bother me far less than they did before.
Change is difficult. I’ll buy in, sometime. A work in progress is what they call that I guess.
Three things:
Something to read – Ed Broadbent dies (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ed-broadbent-dies-1.7080936) – Out of the politicians I’ve followed in the past 35ish years, Ed Broadbent is one I wish I had had the opportunity to meet and never did. I didn’t always agree with him. But I respected him. Disappointed to read this.
Something to listen to – Encore Une Fois by Sash!
This blast from the ’90s dance music vault showed up on a Youtube stream I was listening to the other day. Instant flashback to driving to Toronto with a Muchmusic Dance Mix CD in the cd players. Dance music is so easy to write. Repeat seven words over and over to a thumping bass line. Under the definition of Retro Music, this now qualifies. I guess Smashing Pumpkins is now Classic Rock too (or classic alt-rock?)
Something to watch – Pierre Poilievre and the art of fantasy
“The electrician who captures lightning from the sky, runs it through a copper wire to illuminate this room and light up the world…” – Pierre Polievre.
Wait? What? I know pot is legal… did someone slip something in a brownie at a Conservative Party of Canada function?
This bit from This Hour Has 22 Minutes is classic…
Note – this clip used by 22 Minutes of the “Prime Minister in Waiting” waxing poetically of the electrician is illuminating all right. And if this was just the only time Poilievre had used this nonsensical phraseology, it could be forgiven. At last four instances have been posted online. This type of fiction and acting by Poilievre does – I guess – make him perfectly qualified to be Prime Minister of Canada. Given the qualifications of recent prime ministers, the bar is set really low.
Last word – Sometimes changing for the sake of change is a bad idea. It’s often better to stay with the devil you know, than go with the one you don’t really know.