Ch-ch-ch-changes in the New Year

Three or four weeks ago, a buddy at the gym was recounting to me how, while he was working on something, his observing wife tried to tell him he was doing it the wrong way and proceeded to tell him how he should’ve been doing it.

He told me he stopped what he was doing, looked up and asked her rhetorically, if not ironically (and hoping she’d get the point), “How do you think I ever managed to do anything before you came along?”

With a wide-eyed look of perplexity and in all seriousness she replied, “I have absolutely NO idea.”

I believe he then resumed his task, as before.

What’s the saying? Women marry men expecting they’ll change. Men marry women expecting they won’t.

What do you think? Do people really change?

My wife of many years doesn’t think so, not very much, anyway - that as time goes on and people age, the nature of their character traits, rather than changing, only intensifies - at least in the absence of some event traumatic enough to force upon them a completely different way of looking at themselves or the world.

In contrast, the world around us is in a state of constant change. A few changes are foreseeable, but most exist only in the foggy future and remain a mystery until the time of abrupt unveiling.

The media this last week has been awash with all sorts of predictions about the changes coming along this new year. I never know what to make of most of it.

From way out here on a map-dot in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, circumstances on the Mainland or other countries can seem far-removed and non-concerning, yet, tipping point events in history that have caused momentous changes were often the result of small, unpredictable events in faraway places, the repercussions of which carried around the world.

No one can say for sure what the new year holds, but change is sure to occur. Will coming events force us to change something about ourselves in the process? Will we be willing and able to manage such a change?

Whatever events occur, the best preparations that can be made are growing and sustaining good relationships with family members, friends and work-mates.

If we get those things right, we can probably handle most any change the year might come up with.