Change
…after finished writing my previous posting on “Changing” (hey, go read it before reading this one, yes, you… go!!) I was contemplating a bit about ‘change’… so here is my unorganized thoughts on it…. and yes, also showing my usual attempts to create not-so-inspiring quotes on “change”….. enjoy! or unenjoy!
Many people make changes because they want something better, something more meaningful. But the problem is life itself is constantly changing and might as well the meaning, purposes, and goals of life are changing too. So, in the end, “you have to constantly change your change!” As for me, “every time I find a meaning of life, somebody changes it!”
The other problem with change is that it’s hardly seen. My father always said that I am unorganized, messy, and careless. Every now and then I try to convince him that I have been changed. In fact, yes, I think I can say that I am changed, oh, well, a little. But well no matter how often I say it, it’s hard to prove even to myself, let alone to my father. And it’s more problematic for changes that refer to something intangible. Many guys or gals who broke up with their spouses come back for attempts of reconciliation with this line “I am changed.” But it’s really hard to see that kind of change. Let alone that kind of change, even when you change your hairstyle, not everybody would see it!!! So, here is the problem… “change is mostly inevitable, except when it comes from cash register stations.”
Next problem is that how much you should change? If you need 180 degrees change, it is perhaps not so difficult, just do everything differently and soon you’ll be on the other side of the coin. But if you need only 30 degrees or 14 degrees change, how would you do it? “Too little change, nobody sees it; too much change, nobody recognizes you anymore!” It’s just like doing a surgery on your face. Yes, it’s not your entire body, only your face, but if you change from looking like Michael Jackson to looking like Drew Barrymoore, then still, nobody will recognize you. So, what’s the right change? How much should you change to make things better?
There’re many more thoughts in mine, but for now, I’ll end here. So, do I think change is important? Just to conclude for now, here is my last line…. Yes, I still do think “change is important, especially to feed greedy parking meters.”
12 Comments so far
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Ah, challenging topic.
Coins are on the verge of disappearing from the face of the earth - or so I’m told. Brave new world will be a world without change.
Personality traits may also be fixed. Even though Bill Gates is in charity now, he still is a shrewd business man. Personally I have to admit my mother told me I was clumsy and lazy when I was ten, at this age I see wy wife thinking the same about me all the time.
But then - like someone said in an other context- little changes can occur which make all the difference.
Like an old friend of mine - a heavy smoker - who got lung cancer and had to kick the habit. He did and changed from a funny upbeat man into a funny cynical man.
Or the couple my wife and I have known from our own dating days in the middle ages, who were flowerpower children, but who changed from carefree youngsters into serious, slightly dull, middle aged, very bourgeois, career oriented people.
Or my wife and I who have been raised to be devoted Christians - she a catholic, me a protestant, orthodox calvinist. Well, by Ingmar Bergman and spirit of the time and a few spiritual encounters we have left that behind us. So, no easter bunnies for us.
I guess those changes are neither essential - old friends will still recognize Bill Gates, my old friend Jacques and my wife and I- nor a negligible factor. Outsiders can and will notice the difference.
Sorry for the immodest length of this comment. But I trust you will forgive me.
One more thing. Amor est vitae essentia. Alright. But not only that. Omnia vincit amor also (But we will not surrender). Why do I add this? O, this is another constant personality trait in my life: vanity, snobbery and trying to show of.
mer: no problem with your lengthy comment. i got used to it… and enjoy it
some people changed much more than your examples. i witnessed such change — someone i knew so well. almost unrecognizable, except the ‘face’… and even the look could be changed accordingly as well. but well, who has any right to regulate change or unchange…. just let them be. but really, i love change, they are pretty and they ring in your pocket. i don’t want world without coins. about your three traits, no problem, i accept them as part of you 
By colson on 03.24.08 2:32 am
[...] is one of the best ways of lengthening it - Patrick McGrady Funny Sayingslifequotes.wordpress.comNot-so-inspring Quotes Change??after finished writing my previous posting on ???Changing??? hey, go read it before reading this [...]
By quotes on 03.24.08 8:18 am
So, what’s the right change?
Change,perhaps, doesn’t have right or wrong value. It’s merely a trial.
Small change with big effect; tremendous change with modest effect?Right or wrong is a justification to the effect of change.So, Is it important to change or is it important to be better?
aih, looks I twisted my mind:-D but, mbak Mer, I don’t want change if it is a candy.
mer: change is not free value laden. change is a contested terrain imbued with values. but you’re right, it’s important to be better than to change. sometimes to be better means no change, just doing the same thing over and over. candy is one of absolute forms of change in indonesia…. accept it, dear..
By sisca on 03.25.08 7:32 am
You are such an inspiration for others, a genius with 1% inspiration & 99 % perspiration
will transform, reform and revitalize education globally.
Your ability to make adaptation (from dayeuh kolot to tempe in asu
May you & your students be blessed with good education, research funding and lots of scholarship….!
mer: thank you so much. you’re too generous. i am not genius.
and btw, i rely more on inspiration than perspiration. i think the “1% inspiration & 99% perspiration” quote is overrated, haha
By nemo on 03.25.08 3:54 pm
teh mer, aku juga baru membahas ttg ini sama temenku, what a coincidence! =) but sometimes there are things that you couldn’t change, or shouldn’t change, no matter how hard you want it..or how hard you try to do it..
mer: great minds think alike? hahaha…. maunya ya. yes, agree, there’re many things we cannot change. really many!
By astrid on 03.27.08 9:18 pm
wow, interesting, Prof. love it. maybe in the next time i’ll make the formula for all quotes above hehe… same with colson, i also have some personality trait, olohok tea haha…
mer: cool! will be curiously waiting for your formulas!
olohok mah sae…. haha.
By HP on 03.28.08 3:03 am
Change is most of the time overrated. It is a natural thing. It will be done naturally. Of course a lot of the changes in our lives are done intentionally. But that is hardly a fraction of the total changes.
Whether or not the change is important, that is relative. But it will happen nonetheless.
I don’t think I am making any sense …
mer: it’s natural and unnatural. it’s voluntary and forced. it’s important and unimportant. and it’s everything in between
By Andie Summerkiss on 03.29.08 9:07 pm
Oh yah. I included you in my blogroll. I hope that’s alright.
mer: sure, that’s very alright. once i update mine, i’ll include yours too
By Andie Summerkiss on 03.29.08 9:09 pm
I read it seriously until your last paragraph “change is important, especially to feed greedy parking meters.” Really cracked me up!
mer: don’t you agree?
By Finally Woken on 03.31.08 3:09 am
Hi mer, thanks for visiting my blog.
I think the only constant thing in the world is change. However, change in my life is not constant, so I need to change to spice things up. I have recently gone through several life altering things that has made me want to change from being a person who is easily satisfied to someone who’s not. I’m enrolled in another Master Program, commenced to start on September and probably going to get a Phd after that..
I think you as a professor are inspiring to a lot of people, but only the near-sighted ones will blame you for whatever bad things has happened to their lives. Hey, they are adults, it’s not like you placed a gun to their heads and forced them to make a bad decision, right?
Inspiration by definition is to inspire someone to do something. Whether that something is good or bad is up to the person who is doing it.
Nice blog, I will blogroll it, if you don’t mind.
cheers!
mer: thanks to you too and thanks for your nice words. the world is always changed…. i cannot imagine what’d happen if we insisted not to change…. something’s definitely wrong in that picture! it’s cool that you plan to get a PhD… go for it, girl! :)) p.s. i just blogrolled you as well.
By rima fauzi on 04.02.08 12:46 am
Mer, don’t ever think to change your image in front of your father…it won’t work! You’ll always be his beautiful, cute, little daughter…no matter how old you are, no matter how smart you are…he..he..he…that could be nice sometimes!
I’ve read a research that we are not going far from who we were in our toddlers…need to verify that one!
mer: guess what? I totally believe and agree with you!!! Just had a phone conversation with my mom and she confirmed that!
By Retty on 04.04.08 5:10 pm
also a coincidence. we talked about the changing truth at interfaith discourse today.
being so young (27, yea rite..haha), i still believe that life is about ‘how is the flight’, instead of ‘where we land’. if we follow our heart, in the end, we can only be happy or happier.
regardless if we will or will not reach our first goal/dream. even if we have a change of heart, i still think following heart desires is unregrettable. i support your students’ decision.
i have no idea if all dreams will come true, but every effort to overcome dreams that comes from the hearth is worth to pursue.
no?
mer: 27 is young? hahaha… kiddin’, of course it’s young. i am older than 27 and i consider myself young, still! :p i agree that we should keep our childish’s persistence of pursuing dreams…
By Mulia on 04.07.08 1:42 pm
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