Alright here we go again

I have lived long enough to know that the only change that has any kind of reality is the change in my pocket. I keep track of that change with great supervision and count it every day.

When people tell me that this is a New Year and that there will be a lot of changes this year, I dig into my pocket because that’s the only change I want to know about.

Looking back on my life, the most significant change that ever came to me was the day I said “Yes, I do” to the future Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. At the time, and it’s good for me not to know, I didn’t know what “I do” really meant.

Oh yeah, I understood that it had to do with marriage, but at the time, I had no idea what marriage was about. I thought, as many of the songs tell me, love will conquer all. All you need to do is have love, and that will be all you need.

When I said, “Yes, I do,” my life changed as if I had never expected it to change. And above all, I must admit, for the better. I have no complaints.

Meeting a young woman and then living with her for 50 years was a huge change in my life. I will never know how he put up with me, and believe me, I will never ask him.

That is the only change that had any real meaning in my life. Of course, when the children arrived, there was some aspect of change, but not so much. Children come and go, and then leave the nest.

As a new year begins, everyone anticipates change. But I don’t believe in that kind of change, like I said. I think everything will be the same as last year. Sure, there will be some mods, but as far as change is concerned, I don’t think it’s going to happen.

When we started last year, everyone was excited about the New Year. Then certain things happen that bring all of that to the ground. Who would have expected what had happened?

There were similar events to changes in people’s lives last year. But in reality, we all end almost where we started. That may not seem true, but here we are.

Whenever we go through something that people call a “change”, on the other hand, everything remains the same. Maybe a little variation, but nothing really changes when you analyze it.

The kind lady of the parsonage made it quite clear to me recently. As we thought about the New Year, she said, “What change do you see in the coming year?”

The only change I can think of came from a song from the sixties, “Oh my friend, we are older but not wiser” (Mary Hopkin).

The only change I can see on my horizon is that I am going to grow old. And trust me, I plan on getting as old as possible because I know what happens if you don’t get old.

And that song is correct; we are older but not wiser, and that is not going to change. When I believe that I have reached a certain level of wisdom, I find that I did not know all the facts.

So, I explained to the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, “The only change I can see for myself this year is that I’m going to get old.”

He looked at me with one of his penetrating glances and said, “I don’t think getting old is going to make any changes in your life.”

Of course, she was right. No matter how old I am, nothing is really going to change in my life.

Oh yeah, I walk a little slower and there are pains in my body in areas that I didn’t know I had. I forgot many things that I could once remember. I remember things that never happened. For me, that’s a good thing.

To show that I am not going to change this year, I said to my wife, “What change do you see in the next year?”

It wasn’t long before I realized that his idea of ​​change and my idea of ​​change had no connection whatsoever. He had a list of things he was going to change around the house.

The first is that you are changing your craft room to have more things in the room. Then she’s going to change this room and that room and help me change my office room, and when she’s done, everything in our world, according to her, is going to change.

I’m not going to contradict that change because I know the ramifications of doing such a thing. Chaos is not my idea of ​​happiness.

As she described all the changes she will see made this year, I thought about what old man Solomon said. “What was, that is what will be; and what was made, that is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1: 9).

When my wife changes her craft room, it will still be “her craft room.” Sometimes changing things makes us feel good about ourselves and our life. In the end, everything is the same.