change

I've been thinking about change. One of the organisations that Andrew has to do with has adopted the slogan 'Change is Goodness'. Yes, really. Change is Goodness. Change is Goodness. Change is Goodness. Whichever way you think about it, if you think about it at all, it is a ridiculous statement. And yet it represents a fairly powerful theme in much of postmodern culture. To be flexible, to be on the move, to be able to change anything you like about yourself or your situation... that is goodness. To be unable to adapt, to be tied down by commitments, to find yourself stuck with certain aspects of your personality or your circumstances... that is intolerable.

Oddly, that emphasis on the positive nature of change accompanies a fascination with traditions of all kinds that often have their roots in thousands of years of not changing, of doing the same thing again and again and again. So I regard my tradition with the deepest suspicion and contempt, while thinking longingly of the wisdom stored up by those Tibetan monks in their remote mountain monastery. Where, as John Safran showed us, you get beaten with a stick if you don't do things the same way everyone else does.

I don't say all that as the prequel to a diatribe about Young People These Days. I'm all for positive change, for flexibility, for openness to the perspective of the Other. But I'm really conscious of the stability that comes from not changing. My grandparents (who are very openminded, thoughtful, intellectually adventurous people) have lived in the same house and gone to the same church for over fifty years. That staying-still, that refusal to change just because change might be interesting or immediately attractive, has been a stable and restful centre for the family. I think that more and more, our society will be desperate for such centres.

Here's what I want. To put down roots, and to refuse to change just for the sake of it. To be open to new ideas, and to refuse to refuse change just for the sake of it. To work by a tentative slogan, such as 'Change might be Goodness'.