I had someone who has known me for a number of years accuse me of changing. This person acted puzzled, like "What happened to you? You've changed." I told my wife about this and we both just laughed. We met when I was 20. That was 15 years ago. We are so happy that we've changed. Why in God's name would I want to be like that again? We've both pretty much done a complete 180 on most issues from religion to politics. We are both Born Again Christians (and as much as we'd probably like to thump our Bibles in you face, neither of us really has much of a gift for evanglism.) I fly-fish for bass and blue-gill and trout. I like country music. I'm on city committees and appointed by the Mayor to sit on boards for city goverment. Fifteen years ago, we were so Pro-Choice, we got on a bus and marched at Jefferson City, MO for abortion "rights". I yelled at Pro-Life "extremists", crap like, "Keep Abortion Safe and Legal!!," while holding a No-Coat-Hanger sign. I voted a straight Democratic ticket. Republicans were evil, money-hungry bastards like my father that wanted to poison the children and take "women's rights" away. I had no evidence of any of this, but it didn't matter, it sounded good. You had to be against anybody that loved money and hated women. I loved pro-choice women. What's not to like for a college guy? Hell, you already know that you can tag it with no jimmy-hat and if she get's pregnant, well, you know, at the worst, you're out $300 for her to exercise her "rights." Go ahead, treat that girl like the talking masturbation tool she is. Respect her? Right. TELL her you respect her, but how can you respect her if she doesn't respect herself? How do you know she doesn't respect herself? Because she's clawing at your zipper, and you, sir, are one skanky dude. And you know, if you weren't there, it would be some other mimbo and his sweet mangina she'd be grabbing. Gotta love those abortion rights, dude.
Oy.
Just so we are on the same page here, it's the same amount of time from 20 to 35 as it is from 5 to 20. Fifteen years. In 15 more years I'll be 50. I hope I'm not the same as I was when I was 35. Am I glad we changed? Sure. Just as I would be sad if I hadn't changed from 5 to 20. Ironically, this person who accused me of changing, really hasn't changed much and is damn proud of that fact apparently. Everything is about exactly the same. Except now this person is a parent, too, and considers me, my wife and our views as "extremist." Ironic. I found the following quotes regarding change very interesting. I hope you will too.
"I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise."
Benjamin Franklin
Speech in the Constitutional Convention in 1787
"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."
- Dalai Lama
"Motion or change, and identity or rest, are the first and second secrets of nature: Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Nature, Essays, Second Series (1844).
"Things do not change; we change."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden (1854)
"Parents who expect change in themselves as well as in their children, who accept it and find in it the joy as well as the pains of growth, are likely to be the happiest and most confident parents."
Fred Rogers (20th century), U.S. television personality and parenting specialist. Mister Rogers Talks With Parents, ch. 6 (1983).
"If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America."
Eldridge Cleaver (b. 1935), U.S. African American leader, writer. The White Race and Its Heroes,?Soul on Ice (1968).
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."
Bible: Hebrew Jeremiah, 13:23
"The Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots." (I thought this was funny. mbm)
Henry David Thoreau (1817?862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Letter, November 14, 1847, to Ralph Waldo Emerson, in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 6, p. 140, Houghton Mifflin (1906).
"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Thump Thump)
Bible: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Promised Messiah, Redeemer, Forgiver of Sins, New Testament, Matthew 18:3.
"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much."
Abraham Lincoln (1809?865), U.S. president. speech at a Republican banquet, Chicago, Illinois, Dec. 10, 1856. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 385, Rutgers University Press (1953, 1990).
"What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he stick in a rut."
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835?910), U.S. author. paper, read in Hartford, Connecticut, 1884; repr. In Complete Essays, ed. Charles Neider (1963). “Consistency,?(1923).
"The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion."
Stephen Biko (1946?977), South African political leader. Interview, July 1976. Quoted in Donald Woods, Biko, ch. 2 (1978).
Bed Time.
Oy.
Just so we are on the same page here, it's the same amount of time from 20 to 35 as it is from 5 to 20. Fifteen years. In 15 more years I'll be 50. I hope I'm not the same as I was when I was 35. Am I glad we changed? Sure. Just as I would be sad if I hadn't changed from 5 to 20. Ironically, this person who accused me of changing, really hasn't changed much and is damn proud of that fact apparently. Everything is about exactly the same. Except now this person is a parent, too, and considers me, my wife and our views as "extremist." Ironic. I found the following quotes regarding change very interesting. I hope you will too.
"I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise."
Benjamin Franklin
Speech in the Constitutional Convention in 1787
"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."
- Dalai Lama
"Motion or change, and identity or rest, are the first and second secrets of nature: Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Nature, Essays, Second Series (1844).
"Things do not change; we change."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden (1854)
"Parents who expect change in themselves as well as in their children, who accept it and find in it the joy as well as the pains of growth, are likely to be the happiest and most confident parents."
Fred Rogers (20th century), U.S. television personality and parenting specialist. Mister Rogers Talks With Parents, ch. 6 (1983).
"If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America."
Eldridge Cleaver (b. 1935), U.S. African American leader, writer. The White Race and Its Heroes,?Soul on Ice (1968).
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."
Bible: Hebrew Jeremiah, 13:23
"The Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots." (I thought this was funny. mbm)
Henry David Thoreau (1817?862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Letter, November 14, 1847, to Ralph Waldo Emerson, in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 6, p. 140, Houghton Mifflin (1906).
"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Thump Thump)
Bible: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Promised Messiah, Redeemer, Forgiver of Sins, New Testament, Matthew 18:3.
"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much."
Abraham Lincoln (1809?865), U.S. president. speech at a Republican banquet, Chicago, Illinois, Dec. 10, 1856. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 385, Rutgers University Press (1953, 1990).
"What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he stick in a rut."
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835?910), U.S. author. paper, read in Hartford, Connecticut, 1884; repr. In Complete Essays, ed. Charles Neider (1963). “Consistency,?(1923).
"The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion."
Stephen Biko (1946?977), South African political leader. Interview, July 1976. Quoted in Donald Woods, Biko, ch. 2 (1978).
Bed Time.
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