Change Happens

Peter's Journal March 11, 2008

Springtime comes and goes without much fanfare in a place like Southern California, but if you live in Chicago spring is greeted with an enthusiasm that is infectious.  I suppose it takes a real change of seasons to promote shorts in 50 degree weather, but if you travel along the shore of Lake Michigan on a spring day in March you will see thousands worshipping change as they greet the spring solstice.

 How we greet life’s changes, as well as how we greet one another says a lot about who we are, and who we will become as we age.  If we retain the sense of wonder and awe we had as children experiencing the first snowfall of the year, or the lightening in the darkening sky, or the warmth of the summer sun on the lake that calls us to jump in with unabashed enthusiasm we will probably be able to grow old gracefully, as did both my Mom and Dad and my good friend John Seeley.

I can not recall where in scripture this idea resides, but there is a blessing granted to those who grow old gracefully.  For me that has always meant an acceptance of the natural changes that come as we age.  Our culture fights aging; as a matter of record we have created a multi-billion dollar industry to try and completely deny the aging process; it is called plastic surgery.  Yes, there are just causes for altering or enhancing one’s appearance, but the acceptance of who we are and what we look like to the world may be of greater value than trying to modify breasts, facial structure, or buttocks shape to meet cultural norms of the day.  John Seeley taught me that acceptance of the aging process is the mark of a well inter-grated human being. Amen

Change occurs in the natural world with a predictable rhythm, at least it had for millennia, and I suppose since we are now altering the patterns it is understandable we alter ourselves as well.  We have manipulated nature to try and suit our needs and the changes that we all are witnessing today are beginning to overwhelm us.  It may be 40 degrees in Los Angeles and 75 degrees in Chicago in March, rather than the opposite, but the changes once predictable are now confounding even the experts. We are to blame for our hubris in thinking we know more than the evolutionary process of nature.

There is a parallel – we have not been very good at accepting what nature gives us both in the external world of the environment nor in our own physical being.  We manipulate to suit our needs and the consequences are not always to our liking.  We might think about letting the planet grow old gracefully as we honor the wisdom of the past who advised that we personally acknowledge the joy of aging.