Constant Change- imperative for survival?

We’re in Grand Lake, Colorado which is a small town surrounded by a HUGE Glacier Lake. The main source of income in Grand Lake is/was real estate and tourism. A local we talked to at the Lariat Saloon said the businesses here have three months to make their money for the whole year. There’s a lot of for sale signs up right now.

Hil and I were here about four or five years ago riding through on a motorcycle trip from Jackson, Wyoming to Denver and spent two days and really enjoyed it.

Since we’ve been here last the Pine Beetle have ravaged the log pole pines. A park ranger said the Pine Beetle ‘epidemic’ has spread from Mexico to Canada and that while it may not look very pretty, by the time Emma is an adult a whole new forest will be maturing. The ‘devastation’ has been going on in cycles since the forest originated and is a natural part of the ecology helping to rejuvenate the forest- but it’s not very pretty to look a RIGHT NOW. Whole tracts of forest are dead and starting to fall down. The park service is being proactive removing the dead trees to minimize the potential for fire and accidental damage which makes the land look like teenagers first attempt at a beard all patchy with plenty of bald spots.

I recently finished one of Michael Crichton’s last books before he passed, “State of Fear”, which was written in 2004. It’s really a thinly disguised essay on his opinion of global warming. Roughly speaking, his opinion is that there is no real evidence that global warming is not a naturally occurring cycle and that in fact no evidence that the earth is actually heating up at all as glaciers are growing and sea levels remaining constant. As a former scientist (he graduated from Med school and completed his internship before quitting medicine to become a writer), he cites a plethora of data and shows numerous graphs to prove his point. It’s not his best novel but still an interesting book.

What I found particularly interesting was his comment that the earth and everything around us is in constant change. It just moves so slow we can’t necessarily see it if we’re not carefully looking. I found this to be especially profound considering all the traveling we are doing and how much our lives have changed in the last two years.

The Japanese have a term they use for this idea called ‘Kaizen’, which they apply as a business principle to constantly evolve manufacturing.

I believe as humans this is our purpose in life. Like the forests here in Grand Lake, as things get stagnant (no matter how beautiful) nature comes along and wipes them out to start over, we need to always be thinking about ‘constant change’ or maybe more appropriately ‘constant improvement’.

I believe that we are wired as human beings to function best if we are constantly facing challenges. When those challenges disappear the self destructive nature of man takes over and creates challenges. Often from what I’ve witnessed, these challenges manifest as addiction, fidelity, or intimacy issues.

We don’t have to face disaster everyday to be faced with challenges. Parents face challenges all day long raising children. Families face challenges maintaining core values and relationships against the pressing implied values of both society and the media around them. Individuals face challenges developing a hobby or sport.

You can look at challenges as hopes, dreams, or problems. As a society when people stop working toward ’something’ that’s when we start to see REAL problems. Unemployment rises, welfare rises, education suffers, housing suffers, and in general the intellectual knowledge base of our country drops forcing the next generation to work harder or fall further. I could see examples of this happening in Atlanta in the “developing neighborhoods” that we built lofts.

Keep in mind this is all conjecture on my part.

I think most people fear change. I know for certain some ABHOR change as if it just doesn’t fit into their neat and tidy plans. Dealing with change is like learning to ride a bike or tie your shoelaces, it just takes some practice to become accepting and even adept at dealing with the constant change around us and evolve to go with the flow instead of trying to force a square peg in a round hole and make the change fit you.