Hi folks! Since it’s 2008, a new year, it is time to change the past wrongdoings and shortcomings. Please bear with the article’s length and do read on, you may just get a lesson or two.

REGARDING HENRY
By Henrylito D. Tacio

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!

In a 'Peanuts' cartoon, Charlie Brown asked Linus: "Perhaps you can give me an answer. What would you do if you felt that no one liked you?" Linus replied, "I'd try to look at myself objectively, and see what I could do to improve. That's my answer, Charlie Brown." Hearing the answer, Charlie answered, "I hate that answer!"

There are a number of reasons why many of us, like Charlie Brown, resist change. After all, resistance to change is universal. Remember the story of Galileo? With his telescope, he proved the theory of Copernicus that the earth was not the center of the universe. The earth and the planets revolve around the sun. Yet, when he tried to change people's beliefs, he was thrown into prison and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

King Whitney Jr. surmised: "Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful, it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful, it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident, it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."

During one of the lectures of my science teacher when I was still in high school, our teacher told us: "The permanent thing in this world is change." Those words stuck into my mind. I was a neophyte and never knew anything about the world. Today, I have been to countries I could not think of visiting when I was younger. Those travels have completely changed my way of thinking.

How true were the words of Philip Crosby. He said, "If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow." The beautiful flower you see today will wilt tomorrow. It may be sunny in the morning but sudden rain may pour in the afternoon.

If you're a teenager today, you may be thirtysomething years later. "We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves," penned Lynn Hall in 'Where Have All the Tigers Gone?' Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was even more apt: "The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it."

There is only one thing that never changes: your picture. Listen to the explanation of Albert Einstein: "A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely."

"In a progressive country change is constant, change is inevitable," said British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

In Holland, two large windmills stood on the same dike and ground grain into flour. They had become a standard part of the scenery and their operation was a normal part of everyday life. But then, electricity came into the neighborhood and it could grind grain finer and cheaper and faster.

Modern ways threatened to put the two windmills out of business. But each of them reacted to the threat in a different way. The first one was completely rebuilt. An electric motor took the place of the large waterwheel which had supplied the power for the mill. The latest models of grinding machinery were installed. That mill kept on grinding grain and fulfilling its purpose.

The second windmill was left as it had always been. It gave up grinding grain as unprofitable, but it left the large windmill keeps turning around in order to attract paying tourists.

The owner of the first windmill swallowed hard when he had to swap his venerable machinery for efficient modern technology. However, he had one consolation: his mill was still serving the purpose for which it had been built.

The second windmill went on turning for nothing: for it had given up its job of grinding grain. It seemed to be working at its age-old task, but actually all it was doing was satisfying tourist curiosity.

"Any institution which cannot adjust, cannot change appropriately with the changing times, is going to end up as a tourist attraction," Lutz Hoffman concluded the anecdote.

Are you thinking of not changing anything about yourself? You might end up as a tourist attraction. "If you don't like something, change it," Maya Angelou urges. "If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."

Again, in a 'Peanuts' cartoon, Lucy told Charlie Brown as both were leaning against a fence: "I would like to change the world." Charlie Brown asked, "Where would you start?" Her reply was: "I would start with you."

"Only I can change my life," says Hollywood comedian Carol Burnett. "No one can change it for me." Emma Bunton has a different view: "You can't change who you are, but you can surely make the best of it. And if you've got a thought, act on it."

In other words, if you have to change, be sure to change for the better. Remember what Joel Barker says before: "Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."

Want to change the world? "Change your thoughts and you change the world," suggests Norman Vincent Peale. "You must be the change you with to see in the world," Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi believes.

But American singer Anita Bryant said it all when she declared: "The only way to change the world is to change people; the only way to change people is to change their hearts, and only Christ can change hearts."

There it is. Change is inevitable. Time passes and along with it, change comes. In order for us to keep up with the unending challenges of the changing times, we must adjust and change—change for the better only. Just like in the article, we must cope and force ourselves to embrace changes so that we would be able to continue to operate and pursue the original purpose that we are supposed to do. You don’t want to end up doing nothing but serve as another tourist attraction, so to speak. We must carry out our personal legends, as what God wants us to do. Cliché as it may sound; change does come from one’s self. Start on changing for the better now, as I should.

God Bless us all this year and the years to come. Have a fabulous and happy 2008! Carpe Diem!

P.S.

What are your new year’s resolutions, by the way? Share ‘em with me. =)