"Things do not change. We do." Henry David Thoreau

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." Leo Tolstoy

Folks favoring Intelligent Design prefer the term, "Change Over Time" to "Evolution". Sure. Why not? Nothing changes but change itself, to paraphrase FDR; and no matter which side you favor Change is definitely on this election year’s agenda. Some of us may recall the old proverb, "A change is as good as a rest". Well, maybe not. In fact recent evolutionary studies show changes aren’t always progressive in nature. May even be bad for us! As a country, we’ve experienced lots of changes in recent years. Morphing from the world’s biggest creditor nation to its largest debtor. You might even throw in chubbiest, least educated, less long-lived and happy, than most of thirty or so other "developed" nations. Not to mention a third world infant mortality rate. So clearly change, even though inevitable, can be highly unfavorable. Author Gail Sheehy mapped out many individual life changes in her book "Passages", where she describes change from infancy to childhood, to adolescence, to youth, to maturity, to middle-age. Then the age where so many UU’s find themselves. AARP! Kubler Ross dealt with the last stage of the last stage in discussing our mortality, with its accompanying fears, wheeling and dealing, resentment, anger etc. Then, if we’re wise, the "good" death that follows with acceptance of this final change in life, normal as our birth. There have been many so wonderful guides over the years to help us through experiences of change. Those who may have, "Been where we’re going". Yet, often as not, we must still stumble through in our own way. Certainly a factor that brought many of us through the UU door. Those of us who’ve hung around UU for a decade or two have seen even it undergo change. Much of it for the better, some for the worse, depending on one’s viewpoint. Yet it’s always heartening to note the humanist thread, "reason in the service of compassion", that ever binds us together - as it does all faiths. That elusive "spirit of life" with which we end each Sunday’s contemplations. It’s also the spirit of 2008. CHANGE!! I’m scheduled for a Sunday later this month and hope to share more thoughts on Change with you as we pass through these times so unlike any other. A generation ago we shared a common concern over what we’d be passing on to those yet to come. Our children. And their children. I think we’re drifting back to that mind set. As the most materially affluent generation in human history, they will surely never match our wealth in that respect. Yet I do believe their riches will exceed ours in web of life values, social interaction, perhaps even bliss! Truly, so much work lies ahead, no? A physician whose skills I greatly respect, confided to me that he anticipates experiencing Armageddon and Christ’s return within his lifetime. Say in twenty years. I fervently hope my prognosis is the correct one...

SHALOM