Someone said to me the other day that they didn’t like change. And we were commiserating about change, I like change, you don’t like change. But in the end, of course, we all have to like change because change is upon us, isn’t it?
Change is upon us because of time. We all will change, we will age, will we not? So, perhaps I think to myself, I’m going to have the regular path to life.
I’m going to go to school. After school, I’m going to get a decent job. I’m going to meet a girl or a boy.
I’m going to settle down, perhaps get married, have some children, save some money. And I’m going to keep the same job or the same career forever.
Until I’m old, I can retire my golden years, live in heaven, so to speak, on earth, and then eventually die. But this is not what happens in the average person’s life.
If you go along and you really talk to people, you will find that their life has had periods of total chaos, great pain, great frustration. And what was true about it all was change.
What I thought was going to occur didn’t happen. I’m always fascinated with the biographies of people, of great people, because you think to yourself, the person who comes down to us in history is an icon, really.
I mean, they’re stunningly intelligent and usually handsome or beautiful, and gosh, their story is so wonderful. But in truth, if you dig a little further, you read that biography, you find it’s been a tough life. It’s not been an easy life at all.
And the net result in the end was that I had a modicum of success. Not as much success as I wanted, but yes, I had my bit of success, but along the way, gosh, did I lose the people that I loved.
And I didn’t achieve the things I wanted to achieve, be it may school or something spiritual or intellectual. You know, it wasn’t an easy life. And I think that’s the truth for all of us, isn’t it?
We in a way have to embrace change, because change will come inevitably. And those that hate change will suffer perhaps even more, because it will come, it will come.
So, I think at the very beginning when we’re relatively young, we have to remind ourselves to cultivate, I guess what you could call, maybe emotional resilience or strength. We have to be able to say, there’s no one like me.
There never has been and there never will be, but I must get on with opening the door to me. Not easy to do. And I think also, many times with change comes stress, and with stress comes methods to alleviate stress.
Smoking, drugs, alcohol.
I was listening recently to Anthony Hopkins, the famous actor, and he said that at 35 years old, he was under tremendous stress, and he was slowly gaining a foothold in his career, but he realized this was it, unless he made some radical change, so
he quit alcohol 50 years ago. He quit, and his career blossomed after that. But you know, it’s the old adage. Certainly when I was young, you can’t trust a man who doesn’t drink, so I suppose it was the same with actors.
You can’t trust an actor who doesn’t drink, so he obviously lost friends along the way for sure. But he did say that being sober, if you will, he then reminded himself that he was going to learn continuously.
He was going to develop his career, so he moved from the stage, and eventually he moved into films, of course, right? So in all of that, he was careful. He was careful to keep his own integrity, to keep his own mind.
Even though he claimed he wasn’t a religious man, he did seem to spiritually anchor himself, at least in his belief, in some form of transcendence. So that was, I think, a very important thing for him.
And I think all of us are not any different at all. There are things in life that are not good for us. Whatever they may be, it might not be things along this nature.
But it could be something else. Maybe you have a weight problem, or maybe you can’t sleep properly. You like bad friends, if you will.
Perhaps you’re abused or misused or taken advantage of at times, and you have to learn to say no. And sometimes it’s very difficult, isn’t it? Especially when you’re with childhood friends or maybe even your own family, you know?
So I think embrace change. It is a very important thing, and I think I have to remind myself, why am I here? Me, why am I here?
What’s my mission? What’s my mission? I don’t know, but I’m going to figure it out somehow through my notebook, through introspection, through prayer, whatever it is.
And ultimately, what happens when I leave here close off that piece of fear, right? Don’t bother to worry yourself, because transcendence in that sense will happen anyhow.
Just find a faith that you feel comfortable with, for sure, a la John Hick, the great theologian who of course believed that there are many paths to God.
So, in that sense then, when you think of change, think it’s inevitable, it will happen, even though I won’t like it, I’m going to go with it, for sure.
And you know what they say, you know what they say, critical thinking is everything, especially when it comes to change, and critical thinking is great, truly great. You take care, God bless, bye-bye.