Change
Here is a blog post I wrote back on December 8, 2004 for my previous blog. It was never published as I thought it too personal for the older blog. It’s been hiding away these past few years on my Newton eMate 300. Here it is today for your reading pleasure!
Of all the messages scrawled in my old school yearbooks, I can remember only one without opening the book. In the eighth grade, K.W. wrote in my yearbook, “You’re a nice guy, Dan. Don’t ever change.”
Change is inevitable, and not always for the better. In high school, I learned not to hold the door open for other students, because once you held the door open for someone, others would keep walking through with never so much as a “thank you.” You’d be stuck holding the door until the crowd thinned out–not good if you want to make it to class on time.
If you’re continually late to class, you’ll get a detention. On the other hand, being rude does not have the same consequence. But the reasonable course of action is not always the best one. It can take years to unlearn the bad things you learned in high school. Some people never do.
Change is inevitable, the question is whether we allow ourselves to change for the better or allow the world to change us for the worse. By making the reasonable choice, I allowed the world to change me for the worse.
In 1908, George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
If we want to become better people, if we want to make the world a better place, sometimes we just need to be unreasonable.
After all, long after you’ve forgotten what document was signed at Runymede in 1215 or the phone number of the largest client at your first job, you’ll still remember the kind words of a neighbor, a co-worker or a classmate.
P.S. In case you’re wondering, it was the Magna Carta.
” “You’re a nice guy, Dan. Don’t ever change.”
Change is inevitable, and not always for the better. ”
Ahh I see this is the post where you are admitting to being a big antagonistic brand stealing, blog jumping meanie.
I appreciate the honesty- great post. ;0P
LOL. Yeah, what Michelle said! Fun post though!
Glad you found this… “Reasonable” vs “unreasonable”. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart because it would be unreasonable not to…
Excellent post. You never know what kindness… or crulety… a person will carry with them throughout their life. And it’s wise to remember, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” Or in the modern vernacular, “What goes around comes around.”