To live is to change. There is no point in fearing it and we can't know until it has already happened whether the change has improved our lives and situations or whether it made matters worse.
Charles Darwin is known for observing such a series of events or instances when he reached the Galapagos Islands all those decades ago. He found similar, yet different, species on each island that had adapted to their specific climes in order to survive. He postulated, and proved, that these animals had to evolve, thus change, to live.
You can even see a similar progression in the formation of zygote which grows into an embryo which grows into a fetus within the human womb. At first, it is tiny and may even resemble a tadpole, with gills and a tail. As it grows, it changes, eventually becoming the oh so familiar image of a human infant. And from that bald, squalling infant comes a man or woman who grows, and changes, over the years until that person reaches the grizzled, hump-backed (and possibly bald) time of old age.
Indeed, old age will happen no matter how much you try to fight it. So all the Botox, the tucks and other tricks, all they will do is hide your age, not reverse it. So what if I have some silver in my hair that really stands out against my dark auburn locks? I'm not a spring chicken, and I have had some silver mixed in for close to ten years already, even though I am still some distance from middle age.
Like one of my favorite bumper stickers says, "Growing old is mandatory, Growing up is optional."
It's rather interesting watching the so-called "career politicians" who get into office when they are fairly young and then serve into their dotage. Some, like Robert Byrd of West Virginia, have even died in office after serving for several decades.
Too bad the politicians can't see that their old, tired refrains are losing the audience's interest. For as the bard (William Shakespeare) once wrote in "As You Like It,"
"All the world's a stage,/And all the men and women merely players;/They have their exits and their entrances;/And one man in his time plays many parts,/His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,/Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;/And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel/And shining morning face, creeping like snail/Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,/Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad/Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,/Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,/Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,/Seeking the bubble reputation/Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,/In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,/With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,/Full of wise saws and modern instances;/And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts/Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,/With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;/His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide/For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,/Turning again toward childish treble, pipes/And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,/That ends this strange eventful history,/Is second childishness and mere oblivion;/Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
They are the players with the thicker script book, though how well they stick to their lines might be questionable.
In some productions, most notably melodramas like "Edwin Drood," the actors want the audience to participate. Of course, actors and any performers on stage would love to get that coveted "Standing O" at the end of every performance.
I personally have never been to a political rally, but my sister and her husband have gone to one and I have watched clips from rallies on television and online.
Candidates will do all in their power to entice the voters. They rev the people, their audience, into a frenzy with passionate declarations for change. They adapt their phrases and phraseology to whatever they think the people want to hear the most in order to lure them to that person's "side," to that person's line on the ballot.
And despite the promises and passion of the campaign trail, once any politician is vested in his or her office, these politicians become trapped in the web that has become our government. And thus does the audience begin to boo, for the promises are left in the dust of reality's truth.
All the people that praised the candidate for candor or promise or vision, they are the first that cry foul when that candor is muddled, that promise is broken and that vision grows dim.
In quoting Edmund Burke, a member of the British Parliament, Dr. Lyman Hall, a colonial congressman from Georgia (played by Jonathan Moore in the movie version of "1776"), says, "And in trying to resolve my dilemma, I remembered something I once read. 'That a representative owes the people not only his industry but his judgment and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion.'"
Heck, opinions can be altered by numbers. And the very numbers upon which those opinions are based, the statistics behind the polls, can be manipulated by many factors including the wording of questions, the attitude of the questioner, the passion of the responder and more. These are but a few examples out of the myriad ways numbers can be massaged to seem to say one thing even if they actually show another.
Truthfully, it seems to me that it's nothing more than a farce these days. Especially because the changes simply can't happen overnight, no matter how many brave promises are sworn on a campaign trail.
Used to be that when a person broke a promise, broke an oath, that person would become besmirched. That person's reputation would be ruined and he or she would be shunned as untrustworthy, an oath-breaker. Some cultures would even kill such people.
How far we have come from those days of true integrity to now. Promises are broken left and right, on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress. Doesn't matter which party made the oath.
Still, the populace continues to cling to the shred of hope left within Pandora's Box. Without hope, there can be no thought of a future with happiness and safety. Thus, the people keep turning on the television, making campaign contributions, attending rousing rallies and even wending their way to the polling booth on Election Day, all for hope.
They hope the promises will be kept, that change will be made. That dreams will come true.
Though when you walk into the polling place and the only thought in your mind is, "Which of these would be the lesser evil?" Is this anyway to make such an important choice?
However, all things, especially reaching any goals, any change, take time.
Now I'm not saying that all change is progress. And progress for the sake of progress isn't always a good thing. Sometimes it's nice to keep things simple. And sometimes the change is actually a step backwards instead of one forward.
As Andrew Shepherd said in the same speech quoted above, "America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad because it's going to put up a fight. It's going to say, 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land is the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can standup and sing about the land of the free."
Freedom could be considered a two-edged sword according to that description. But the sword can be turned to good, can take the head of the hydra that has become politics in this country.
However, hydras are notorious for one major thing: take one head and the neck will split into two, thus actually creating a worse situation than what already existed. That is unless you burn the stump of the neck, which prevents it from splitting.
The same could be said of the killing of Osama bim Laden for he is now a martyr and his people will hold him up as an example, thus demonizing the SEAL team and the Americans cheering them on for their actions.
So in the end, these fights based on politics, or religion, will be futile. As the computer Joshua said in the movie "WarGames," "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
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