Unrelenting Change: my two cents worth.

When I was youngster, I wanted to become a veternarian. There were a couple of problems, however. I couldn't bear watching animals suffer, and there are fewer schools of Veternary Medicine than there are medical schools. I lacked the requisite academic discipline to achieve entry into vet school. Things change. I ultimately landed in the world of words...broadcasting, politics, teaching and writing. Now I worry about spelling "parvovirus" rather than treating it.

Change is inevitable. Two sayings come to mind: Burns' "best laid plans...sometimes go astray" and "you can't stay were you are, you're either going forward or slipping behind." They both suggest that no matter what we do or how we plan, we cannot avoid change. As I age, I become more aware that change is pervasive. I now carry a cell phone after resisting for years. Oh, I still find it somewhat annoying, but because of some medical problems in the past, I know my family feels more at ease due to my having "9-1-1" easily accessible on my belt. There have been other changes over the years that I have sought to avoid, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I remember the halcyon days of the '50's (nineteens, not eighteens)...those "Ozzie and Harriet" times, living on a farm near a small village. My teens and early twenties were lived during the turbulent sixties and seventies. Change has been a constant in my life.

Nearly twenty years ago I preached a sermon about the Apostle Peter. He was a tough-skinned, calloused handed fisherman with little schooling and limited sophistication. He was summoned by the Son to follow Him and learn at His feet for three years. At a time of great trial he failed...not once, or twice but three times, but Peter went on to nurture a movement and died a gruesome death while clinging to what he knew was true. Today, some twenty two centuries later billions of believers have venerated his name and his memory. Now there's some change for you.

Some changes are obviously good, and others are downright destructive. Perhaps it's the oldster in me who believes that the soft core porn that passes for primetime television is bad. Maybe my fossilized attitudes cause me to regret that younger generations appear to be unfamiliar with the Bible and United States' history. Perhaps I have a distorted perception when I suspect that many of my fellow citizens have unrealistic ideas about rights without understanding that one must earn respect and privileges. Maybe I have assumed my role as a cranky curmudgeon without my having qualified for it.

In the final analysis, though, I reserve the right to celebrate the change that I believe to be good, to tolerate that change that I suspect is meaningless, and to excoriate the change that I find poisonous. And....I reserve the option to change my mind about anything and everything.