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Change, change agents and catalysts for change—these are all good things right? The government is paralyzed by inertia, all religions as well: higher education, the auto industry, Catholicism. That’s bad right?
Once people said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” “Slow and steady wins the race.” “Stay the course.” Now it seems an amazing amount of people are thrilled by the topic of failure. “One fails forward toward success” or any iteration of the rationalization of failure. This rationalization begets a new buzz term—strategic pivot, i.e. “oops, let’s try this then.”
Inertia is the natural target of disruption, another very popular buzzword. Never before in the history of time (or at least as long as I can remember) has there been such frantic institutional, business and societal noise about change relative to almost none of it really substantially happening.
In this season, in my opinion, it’s important to take note that nothing really important has ever changed. Joy, caring, sharing, charity, forgiveness, family and love are all the same as they have always been. Sure relationships are altered slightly by smart machines—such as the printing press, the steam engine, the automobile, and the airplane. (I am personally going to wait 100 years before I add smart phones to this list.) But essentially these pillars of being human are constant.
As we approach the celebration of Christmas, the rogue Catholic Pope is said to be tilting against the windmill of inertia that is his administration and to a large degree his following. He is creating a new way to look at the faith that guides him. He is challenging an institution trapped in the past, altering its inertia, trying to ensure its future.
Everything is fundamentally as it always has been. And that’s good.
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