This is more of a stream of consciousness entry than a carefully researched topic. This is not like me at all. I’m usually more wont to meticulously write and re-write topics until they are as near perfect as I can be satisfied with. This time things just flooded out and for kicks I left things as they sat.
We are in a continual state of evolvement. I foolishly thought at age 30 that I had reached “maturation” and “ the end of personal evolution” and when I got married I was quite secure in the fact that I was done and that my new marriage with my husband would continue on along parallel pathways. Turns out our paths were never parallel at all and that they only crossed briefly for that time and began diverging. By the time 12 years had passed I barely recognized the person I was, or who he was for that matter. I had different interests, beliefs and passions in my life. He accused me of changing. I called it evolving.
Change is to alter or modify, to transform. Evolve is to grow, progress, move forward. Subtle differences, but differences nonetheless. Yes I had changed but in the process I had also evolved into someone I felt more comfortable living with. A kind of “new and improved” me. Or “me, only better”. Well, you get my point…
My taste in movies has evolved, so has my wine preference and the books I like to read and the activities in which I participate, to name only a few. Watching, drinking, reading and doing the same things all the time would frankly be boring. Even my circle of friends is different. University friends have gone their separate ways, and although I still keep in touch with many of them, we have very little in common these days aside from the memories of school and residence.
I do have my days where I like being in a rut. It’s comforting and I don’t have to think much, and the old stand-bys are always there. But that does get old quickly and eventually I yearn for some kind of change.
We are hard-wired to evolve. If everything stayed the same we would all still be wearing bell-bottomed jeans and tie-dyed t-shirts with the same hairstyle (well ok…some people still are) or worse, one celled organisms swimming around a murky pond. It would be very boring. I think the moment we stop evolving in life is the moment we stop living life.
1 comment:
Very interesting post! I like the distinction you make between 'changing' and 'evolving'. I was raised by people for whom change was bad and personal growth/evolution was frivolous. As a result, I've been accused many times of always wanting more, insinuating that I was not satisfied with what I had at the moment. I always take comfort when I find other people like me, who do not blindly accept status quo for their lives. Your post got me thinking! Thank you.
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