Hearth To Hearth

by Donna Tavano

Use Your Change Wisely 

            None of us can avoid change, try as we might.  I, personally pray nightly to the Gods of the Internet that I never have to change all my access passwords again. 

            Change is essential to evolution and survival.  It does seem to hit harder, though, the older we get.  Let’s face it, how difficult is it for a 22-year-old to change something they’ve been doing for a year, compared to a septuagenarian altering something they’ve done for seven decades?  And, let’s lay it on the line here, it is possible to teach old brains new tricks.  Scientifically speaking, it just takes a little longer and needs repeated reinforcement. 

            People over 50 have a whole lotta screening that constantly goes on in their heads.  You’ve  probably seen the momentary blank look that comes over their faces when they are given yet another credit card and pin number to memorize.  In that instant, they are silently searching through a half century of faces, names and places,  simultaneously reviewing social relationships and etiquette, mistakes and bad experiences to avoid reliving, and eons of phone numbers, identification numbers, passwords and  bank and lock combinations, ultimately responding with a socially acceptable response like, “Ya gotta be kiddin’ me.”  This is coupled with the reality that, in the months it takes a senior citizen to learn a new technology, three or four updates have occurred, rendering this new skill already outdated.

            Only the young, or techno geeks, seem to adapt to the never-ending assault of MP3s, iPods, iTunes, ay-yi-yi, these electronic devices do everything except flush the toilet for us.

            It’s not just technology that changes.  In the name of progress, scientists have managed to clone everything but clean, cheap, renewable energy.  Their most recent tinkering with genes and phosphorescent protein have produced a Cheshire Cat whose grin emanates from the glow within.  At least you’ll never trip over Fluffy on that midnight foray to the loo again.

            Genes have been cut and pasted, mixed and spliced into concoctions that create glow-in-the-dark fish, and appendages and organs that sprout off oblivious rats and frogs like dreadlocks on a matted poodle.  Some of this stuff is good, but much of it is not, and I must concur with Dr. Suess’ Fish in the Pot, “I do not like this, not one little bit!”

            We do not always know what change will bring.  Albert Einstein suffered greatly and with the heaviest of hearts as he realized the destructive capabilities of his work.  But once made, “progress” cannot be reversed.  Consider another scientist, one who retired to the Cape, now deceased.  His work was in biological research.  He developed compounds that kept weeds at bay and thus increased crop growth, a wonderful thing that could sustain Third World nations.  His knowledge also allowed him to create the most beautiful dahlia flowers, which he named after his daughter and wife.  But his most memorable legacy was the defoliant he created during the Vietnam War.  It is believed thousands of people developed cancer and died as a result of exposure to these chemicals.  This progress became a weapon of mass destruction.

            The technology of cell phones has saved lives, getting medical and law enforcement aid to victims in crisis, but it has also caused thousands of accidents as distracted motorists try to text or talk while driving.  Then, there’s our love/hate relationship with the World Wide Web.  On one hand, it has shrunk the Earth to the size of your old neighborhood, and taught and informed millions with its resources. On the other hand, it has introduced untold victims to identity fraud and invited sex offenders into the bedrooms of our children. 

            Mountain climbers ascend to the peak, hopeful and driven, unsure of what is on the other side, and explorers sail to the edge of the world risking a plunge into the abyss in the name of progress.  Discovery and exploration will never cease, nor should it, but change must not be embraced “for change’s sake,” as the thirty-something movers and shakers of our business world insist.  There’s good reason old folks don’t just knock off after age 40.  They are nature’s antidote to the rashness of youth.  Surviving six or seven decades of rough seas and stormy blasts tends to temper one’s sharp edges, leaving a pleasant smooth surface for others to move forward on. Experienced souls know when to apply the brakes (admittedly, some are too old and compromised, and hit the gas instead, but that’s another column).

            Remember when you had a few cents in your pocket and your parents cautioned you to “use your change wisely”?  That’s what we still need to do, use the changes life throws at us in the most thoughtful and intelligent way.  Unless, of course,  you prefer to awaken to the next generation of genetically altered foods—“Revenge of the Brussels Sprouts”—larger-than-life vile green veggie creatures who by genetic manipulation and a few cast-off human genes think themselves into gargantuan forms seeking to take over the world, retaliating for years of public humiliation, misunderstanding and  species discrimination.

1/17/07