CHANGE AND THE OPEN DOOR

In our world society where change sometimes just for the sake of change seems to be increasing, it shouldn’t be surprising that change (or its imminent prospect) is now dominant in every aspect of our lives. We who have seemingly paid our dues and think that with our maturity we can sit cross-legged on our haunches and contemplate life from a Tibetan mountaintop whilst drinking a Coke® (OK, a Dr. Pepper®) are delusional. The journey isn’t over until we are planted and can contemplate no more.

With an ever volatile world economy and the harbinger of the effects of global warming, our lives are getting set to change even more. It’s going to be a calamitous, mind-bending experience with no end in sight. It will be well beyond scrapping those big gas guzzling SUVs in favor of the more economical scat backs that will most assuredly litter our highways in the near future. That will just be the start.

The changes that we will ultimately see will be mind altering, sweeping and affect our overall quality of life. We need to be prepared at least for the prospects of change so we can act appropriately and with vision when the time comes for action (yesterday?). Plant your gardens now.

As one who had just gone through some major changes in my life, I thought it appropriate that one Alexander Graham Bell, the Scottish born, American inventor and educator thought to pronounce that, “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” No, there’s not a lot of luck going on. The Boy Scouts have it right.

Bell was also the genius who noted that, “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Your writer and host is a hopeless idealist who will long ponder the foibles of life though he needs to be ready to recognize that open door and slip through to the other side. The path is well trodden with the words of long gone poets and philosophers extolling us on to accept that change. I get the message.

After all that, though, we must resist the selfish temptation of frivolous change and the prospects of an even more disposable society where at a whim or at the point of midlife crisis at the exclusion of all others we turn our world and others in it on their heads because we feel that we might have or will miss something. More often than not we find out that there’s more to life than transitory hedonistic ramblings that offer no future comfort and probably only ultimate regret. Nothing wrong with being comfortable...

Thanks to a dear Friend from North Carolina I found out years ago that some country music can offer solace, refuge and even some good advice. That’s certainly the case with the triple sensation, The Osborn Sisters, now known as Shedaisy. In Another Door Opens they wax eloquent,

It takes time (here in this crazy life)
To find what I've been looking for
This dream of mine (burnin' inside)
Has seen its share of slammin' doors
I get closer everyday
With every single step I take

[Chorus]
Oh one door closes another door opens
Love or money it all keeps going on
World keeps spinnin' and I'm beginnin' to find my
way (find my way)
Smart moves, mistakes, big breaks, heartaches
They've all made me who I am today
(I'll keep going on) One door closes another door opens

Just when I believed (I've really got it all)
I'm right where I wanna be
It's not as it seems (I tend to fall)
And when I get back on my feet
Before the tears dry on my face
I see I'm in a better place

I don’t know about you, but I’m already through the door and walking towards the light.

Aye,

Ned Buxton