Dakepaike's Weekly Quotes (special edition):

“Things do not change, we change.” – Henry David Thoreau

I was reading this book entitled “Lift me up, words of wisdom” by Ron Kaufman. Basically, this whole book is just a compilation of many quotes by great people. I came upon this quote by Thoreau and felt so strongly about it that I decided to contest his ‘words of wisdom’.

Hence I came up with my own, a slight modification to his and I present to you Dakepaike’s weekly quote, week number 23:

“Things change, so we change.”

By the way, this is an extremely easy book to read but in my opinion, it is also an extremely naïve book to read. I had difficulty relating to the quotes because I feel that most of the quotes cannot apply to today’s complicated and dynamic world. No offence to anyone and Mr Kaufman, just my own opinion.

So, why “things change, so we change”? Because of one simple rational: humans respond. I do not want to get involved with the meaningless debate of ‘which comes 1st, chicken or egg?’ Some people will argue because humans change, so they change things, others will say that because things change, so people are being changed. I actually favour the latter stand. As human beings we respond and react to different situations and environment. It is unimaginable that things will always remain stagnant (life will be damn boring). Things always change. I propose that humans are passive agents in the face of change. We react, not create. I have a handwritten draft that talks a lot more but I think it is crap, so I just go on to prove my stand.

Let me give examples to better illustrate my point. We talk about saving and reducing global warming because things have changed, so we change ourselves (how we use and conserve energy, reduce emissions etc). Perhaps the sole breadwinner of the family becomes bankrupt, the family members have to change their lifestyles, maybe even a change in their characters, the way they view money.

The above examples are simple and straight forward ones. To completely debunk the opposition’s beliefs that ‘things do not change, we change’, I am constructing a very simplified yet complicated example. Hope it is not too profound for readers to understand. Here we go!

Imagine you are now in a world of white. There is nothing else, everything you see is white. For now, things have not changed, white is white. One day, you decided that it is getting boring. You, as a human being change, your feelings about the environment change, you decide to do something to change the thing (environment in this case). So you are the one who has changed? Or something else has changed? In this extreme argument, I would say things have changed, so you change.

Read carefully the contents below:
Initially, you have a connection with the white space, you have given it meanings. You are comfortable or at least not antagonistic about it.

Now the white space has got its own meaning and definition (you gave it a meaning). So far, white space is ‘constant’, you are ‘constant’ too. Both of you are in equilibrium, both are interconnected.

Suddenly you feel something different about the white space. Why does your feeling change? Do you change out of nothing? No, because the meaning of white space has changed, it disrupts the equilibrium. To you, white space changes its meaning. White space, being interconnected with you, changes you. Hence, things always change 1st, so we change.

Hmm… I am not too sure if readers will understand.

In a nutshell,
Things are given meaning by us.
Humans respond to changes.
When the meaning of things becomes different, we react by changing.
Meaning of things becomes different = things change.

Hope it is clear enough.

I think I am going crazy thinking of such philosophical stuff.

-dakepaike-