Off The Cuff Archive

The below freezing temperatures and late arrival of winter weather comes at a time of year when people naturally feel down or low. In many ways, the weather seems to bring with it the biting winds of change; in the upcoming Grantsville election, with a new commissioner, and within the minds of residents who feel that winter pressure to make something, anything different.

The release of the movie, “Over the Hedge,” is based on a playful look at change. In the book which led to the movie, authors Michael Fry and T. Lewis, note, “The more things change, the more they remain . . . insane.”

 For some reason, that statement strikes home to me.

 So often, I hear people say, “Calhoun County will never change,” but Calhoun County is changing. Every day, something is different, businesses open, businesses close, justice prevails, justice fails. Opportunity knocks, and sometimes, someone listens. Yet, this change seems to bring us back to the same problems. Why?

 What doesn’t change is Calhoun Countians’ outlook. Every time someone says, “Calhoun County will never change,” they are dismissing the changes that are taking place, in the rotation of family leadership and community leadership to the next generation, and in the nature of those who step in to fill a void that was left by someone else.

 With the addition of each new resident, or the loss of someone who moves on, Calhoun is slightly altered for the better or worse. While folks stand around and dismiss these changes by failing to recognize them, they become like the frog in the soup pot. Throw him into a boiling pot, and he will leap out immediately, making the needed move to save his life; however, put him in a comfortable pot of water, and heat it slowly, and the frog will swim until he becomes soup.

 If we do not pay attention to the little changes and adjustments in our community, we are not capable of adapting our own minds and our own behaviors to properly adjust, accept and drive the changes into a direction for the better. Our natural tendency to resist change makes us unable to move forward. This is the reason “the more things change, the more they remain insane.” Interesting then that Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

If we continue making the same mistakes, progress cannot develop from the changes we experience. If we continue to dismiss change or continue doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, things will remain “insane.”

 There is no going back to the “good old days” of Calhoun. We need to change our thoughts to change our world and bring about different results to the challenges we face again and again with the same approach. We need to find and embrace the paths of change that are before us to the make these days the “good old days” of the future.