Hello, bloggers.
I’ve been thinking lately about change.
We have all shouted about change and how wonderful it is. I love change. I embrace it, look for it daily in my life, and if it doesn’t happen, I do something to agitate myself or my art.
I don’t like the roteness, the impersonal clock-watching that comes in the absence of change. Who wants to have lunch at 12 noon every day? How about we have it at 10 to 12, or 12:15. Let’s have it at 7 o’clock at night and call it breakfast, to really piss off the waiter!
Change, to one person, is a disaster to another. Change has to be well thought out, well planned, all sides have to listen to it, and if all agree, it’s probably the wrong thing to do. It won’t really be people sitting around, blowing hot air, thinking they’re doing something, when in reality, nothing’s being done.
To my way of thinking, defining the problem is the most important process of change.
Constantly, as an adult, I’ve heard about how the Social Security system is going to collapse in a particular year, or the health crisis is going to happen. Everybody knows what the problem is, but nobody has been able to risk whatever the hell they’re risking to do something about it. It used to be that if politician talked about it, they’d be thrown out of office.
Now we have a President who has recently completed his first hundred days in office. I applaud what President Obama has done so far. He not only articulated what he thought he was going to do; he actually did things, much to the surprise and chagrin of some.
Our form of government always dictates that somebody is always screaming and hollering about what should and shouldn’t be done. It used to be that apple pie, motherhood, and the flag were things that were immune to debate.
Today, people debate those things. You can’t eat apple pie because it’s fattening, and were pesticides used in the growing of the apples? You can’t talk about motherhood without talking about Roe versus Wade, and it becomes very politicized. The flag brings up the question of whether you burn the flag, and the art installation where you have to trample the flag to sign the guestbook.
The only thing people agree on is a good piece of chocolate cake, although the censors will tell you you shouldn’t eat it.
Change is a great thing, but then there are the unintended consequences of what you do. I liken that to someone whose house is infested with cockroaches. The guy comes in and lights a match and lights the whole house on fire. The cockroaches aren’t there any more, but neither is the house.
That’s how Congress seems to act sometimes. You’re there in the smouldering ruins, and they call for an investigation into why it happened.
The next four years are going to be an interesting time. To me, the flavor of the President’s Cabinet is very indicative of the diverse opinions the adminstration is going to hear. The other rules and regulations of the road that have been handed down in the past, have really made some people happy and pissed off others.
It always comes down to whose ox is getting gored. You see that when there’s drought. People become victims because they can’t wash their car every day, or they piss and moan because the grass is brown. If you explain to them that some people can’t drink, a lot of them don’t give a shit.
We have to come to a consensus as people, and if we don’t like it 100%, get over it, hit yourself with a paddle, drink a beer, go for a walk, and if all else fails, drown yourself and go on to the great unknown.
Oops, as an undertaker, I shouldn’t have said that!
Change is the parade I want to march in: all colors, all parties, marching together toward the great sunrise. Wouldn’t that be something? We can hope.
LAMB