Chatterbox: The necessity of time and change

The weeks seem to be flying by, more so for some than others of us.
A character in one of my books says flippantly, “Relativity … it’s all about relativity.” She’s right too. One would think, though, that as we age time would pass more slowly. After all, we move more slowly but, perhaps, that’s why everything seems to go so quickly … because when we move more slowly we take longer to do everything and get anywhere.
We change, too, as we travel through life; we’ve talked about this before here at Chatterbox. Nothing, though, is more interesting than how our perspective changes. I’ve mentioned how two singers with long careers taught me that I was evolving. Whether I had planned to, tried to, wanted to and/or expected to or not, two classic artists, Andy Williams and Tony Bennett had plans for me. They were going to hang in there crooning long enough to make me realize I could enjoy their talent … and, eventually, I did. In Tony’s case, Lady Gaga had a huge hand to play in my transition; Andy worked alone.
We all travel through life evolving. We talked once about a book I read when I was 20. It was a bestseller then. I thought it interesting, as it was a period piece taking place during the years of the Civil War, and it had a unique story. When I was 35, I set to reading it again. I finished it out of sheer discipline. I thought it was silly, shallow, and a vehicle written to entertain the mainstream and make money, with little else to redeem it. The book, of course, hadn’t changed. I had.
Change, if we’re very lucky, is more than just our preferences in books and music. It’s personal and also, hopefully, it’s also our opinions about social and political conditions. Chatterbox once mentioned how reading some of my own older columns made me cringe. That’s a good thing. It reflects personal progress.
Our opinions on non-consequential things are less important than the opinions we change about the real issues in life. Those of us who evolve with time and history display an ever-increasing intellect and willingness to develop as humans. Those who remain defiant in the face of time, change, and the facts, and who try to hold back the progress that must come for the planet and its people, also display something, but it certainly isn’t wisdom.

That kind of defiance is the chariot of prejudice and an impediment to progress, and is not, in any way, a sign of wisdom or even strength. It is nothing more than a simple defiance and, as a narrowness of heart and mind, it prevents the forward motion that is required for our entire nation and all her people to progress in the very best way.
The prejudice it’s sown from and continues to cultivate is, sadly, cyclical because it continues to replicate itself. Any people, any nation, refusing to use all its human resources to better itself, its people, and its standing among other nations, is reflected in the eye of the world as ignorant.
Right now, in America, we are watching our people divide themselves over issues resolved long ago. We see many Americans raising their voices to resurrect ideas that bring us backwards, ideas that are forcing governing bodies to reexamine issues resolved and written into the law long ago. These politics only work against us.
This is not progress. It isn’t even stagnation. It is regression, and a nation in which any portion of its people think going backwards is the way forward is heading in the wrong direction. Not every issue is resolved to the content of everyone, but we should want what is prudent, and that must be the rule. We can revisit our laws to improve them, but never to undo what advances us as a whole people and a strong nation. This is imperative if we want to stay at the front of, or even just keep up with, the international pack.
Chatterbyte: As promised, I’ve kept up with the work on 202 South. It seems it’s done. It’s a patch job that has left us with softer railroad ties to traverse on our way into Doylestown, hospital included, and it’s laughable. We can only wonder what PennDot is thinking. The “oatmeal pot” pothole was remedied; it’s messy but acceptable. However, the route of the return trip has not been touched and still looks like it has been strafed at close range.

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