MY PEOPLE, YOUR PEOPLE, AND CHANGE

I’ve heard but never said, “The thing that never changes is change.”

It comes with, “Change is always hard at first.”

Not to forget, “Change is a way of life.”

Adapting to change is like climbing a mountain. Yes, I climbed a mountain and can check that box, just not a Mt. Everest traffic jam sort of climb.

My mountain was more of a take two steps up and slide back one. It was called a ‘scree mountain,’ another word for huge gravel pile.

I’d planned on climbing that mountain no matter how high, but plans changed. And I adapted. That’s what you do when plans change after training three months for the climb.

People change, plans change.

The whole idea of change works through every moment we share on earth, if you don’t mind getting a little earthy here.

Change is hope for a better future if the general drift of the current day bothers you at all. And it should. If you’re reading this, I consider you my people today. If that works, send the link to your people.

I believe Stephen King’s writing warning, that if you don’t have time to read, you’ll never have time to write well. I’ve seen the same for years across twitter and facebook and heeded it.

I picked up a new book, or what I thought was new. It had been hiding on the shelf, a copy of J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey. It’s been decades since I’ve read it. Turns out it’s the book I gave my wife Elaine when we were dating. That, and Princess Bride.

Am I the only one who used books as date bait?

While I read the Franny part in the beginning, and it’s a thin book so the beginning is pretty short, like twenty eight pages, for the first time in thirty years, I finally understood what was going on.

As a book fan and history major, I’ve done author research.

Salinger is part man, part myth.

I’ve often wondered how a man who went through WWII the way he did could come out and write stories about the manners and customs of wealthy kids from wealthy families.

As I read through Franny’s conversion talk with her boyfriend over lunch before the big game, I realized he was talking to a universal human event: What’s Next, and, Do I Have To Go?

G.I. Joe Salinger had to have asked himself the same question while watching young men get blown up.

At every turning point we face, the big and the small, having a choice makes for a better outcome. Sometimes it’s a bad choice, sometimes a bad outcome, but how often do adults need to be forced to do only one thing?

My people believe in choice, whether it’s bread, or barbecue.

Is having a choice all that important?

When is the last time you were told what to do and liked it?