I am sure that the above phrase strikes a chord with everyone and at some point in their life, most people have either said or have been made to hear these three annoying words, "You have changed!!", followed by a silent pause, or by a very unwelcome rant!! :)
For those of you who have been at the receiving end of this phrase, jump straight to the next paragraph please. But for those of you who are guilty of having said this to someone else, allow me to put things into perspective! I will take you a couple of hundred centuries back into time & history where I would like to introduce you to someone by the name Charles Robert Darwin. Mr. Darwin was an English Naturalist, and established some very interesting facts centred around, species, their survival and their evolution. One of these was to do with how species adapt to change.
Let's pick up a scenario that's easy to visualise. Suppose I am a rabbit that hops on land 24x7x365 going *boing-boing-boing-boing* (perhaps you just imagined Bugs Bunny with my face on didn't you?? :D), along with my herd of other rabbits just like me. Then imagine one day a really bad flood happens to greet us (surely it lost its way to somewhere else where Mr. Drought was visiting instead - how typical!!). The flooding is potentially devastating for my herd as none of us know how to climb trees nor do we know how to swim. As a result, all of us end up drowning. All of us except one rabbit.....you guessed it..... that rabbit is me (at least I can be a hero in my imagination!!). Now you must be wondering how I possibly survived that flood that wiped out my entire herd? I did not mention a vital piece of information about myself - the fact that I am a deaf rabbit; unaware that 'we' the 'rabbits' cannot swim. As such, my brain too, was unaware of the fact and responded to an instinct so I could pull through and have the best possible chance to survive. With a lot of struggle I kept on kicking my hands and legs to keep myself afloat, till the flood finally passed. As the dawn broke, I looked around with a deep sense of sorrow to know that all my buddies were capable of swimming and surviving that flood - if only they were deaf too! I stood there and sobbed my heart away. Just then someone tapped me on the shoulder and said 'Son..(no, he actually said "hey rabbit" - I am joking!! And I heard that in spite of being deaf - its MY imagination remember??)'. I heard the voice again, 'Hey rabbit....don't cry.' As I turned around to see who it was, I couldn't believe my ironical luck. 'On this sorrowful day I finally meet that very man who inspired me to dedicate my future to research & who I had spent hours reading about when I was at my "Rabbit High School" ', I thought. The half bald head, the long white beard, those questioning eyes, and that enlightened look was unmistakable - it was Mr. Darwin - the man, the legend himself indeed, standing right there behind me. He hugged me comfortingly and said ' Well done Mishi rabbit. You should be proud of yourself. - You're a survivor; you've just adapted to a change.' And having said that, what was probably Mr. Darwin's real ghost (or me hallucinating after 24 hours of struggling to keep afloat amid a ferocious flood ) slowly vanished in thin air.
Now then, ladies & gentlemen, coming back to the, 'You have changed,' business. Each and every one of us is faced in life, with several such floods, earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, droughts, or what have you, of various intensities from time to time! For those of you who like to call a spade a spade, I would like to highlight that I mean the previous sentence in a metaphoric sense. This process of encountering various challenges is a series of small or big, good or bad, floods that change your 'comfort zone' habitat and demand for you to adapt in order to survive in it. Adapting to change is therefore a constant and dynamic process that is happening to all of us even as we read this post from start to finish. Whether it tips your balance towards becoming a better person or worse is a separate matter of discussion. But what I am trying to put across to you here, is that you don't change from one time to the next, of meeting/ speaking to the person who makes that annoying comment - you merely adapt. And my point is that adaptation is essential for survival in that changed habitat.
So next time do think twice before judging someone and making the statement, 'You have changed!' And for those of you who are made to hear this statement henceforth, refer the culprit to my post here and make sure you clarify that you haven't changed; you have simply adapted!!
Hakunna Matata!!
For those of you who have been at the receiving end of this phrase, jump straight to the next paragraph please. But for those of you who are guilty of having said this to someone else, allow me to put things into perspective! I will take you a couple of hundred centuries back into time & history where I would like to introduce you to someone by the name Charles Robert Darwin. Mr. Darwin was an English Naturalist, and established some very interesting facts centred around, species, their survival and their evolution. One of these was to do with how species adapt to change.
Let's pick up a scenario that's easy to visualise. Suppose I am a rabbit that hops on land 24x7x365 going *boing-boing-boing-boing* (perhaps you just imagined Bugs Bunny with my face on didn't you?? :D), along with my herd of other rabbits just like me. Then imagine one day a really bad flood happens to greet us (surely it lost its way to somewhere else where Mr. Drought was visiting instead - how typical!!). The flooding is potentially devastating for my herd as none of us know how to climb trees nor do we know how to swim. As a result, all of us end up drowning. All of us except one rabbit.....you guessed it..... that rabbit is me (at least I can be a hero in my imagination!!). Now you must be wondering how I possibly survived that flood that wiped out my entire herd? I did not mention a vital piece of information about myself - the fact that I am a deaf rabbit; unaware that 'we' the 'rabbits' cannot swim. As such, my brain too, was unaware of the fact and responded to an instinct so I could pull through and have the best possible chance to survive. With a lot of struggle I kept on kicking my hands and legs to keep myself afloat, till the flood finally passed. As the dawn broke, I looked around with a deep sense of sorrow to know that all my buddies were capable of swimming and surviving that flood - if only they were deaf too! I stood there and sobbed my heart away. Just then someone tapped me on the shoulder and said 'Son..(no, he actually said "hey rabbit" - I am joking!! And I heard that in spite of being deaf - its MY imagination remember??)'. I heard the voice again, 'Hey rabbit....don't cry.' As I turned around to see who it was, I couldn't believe my ironical luck. 'On this sorrowful day I finally meet that very man who inspired me to dedicate my future to research & who I had spent hours reading about when I was at my "Rabbit High School" ', I thought. The half bald head, the long white beard, those questioning eyes, and that enlightened look was unmistakable - it was Mr. Darwin - the man, the legend himself indeed, standing right there behind me. He hugged me comfortingly and said ' Well done Mishi rabbit. You should be proud of yourself. - You're a survivor; you've just adapted to a change.' And having said that, what was probably Mr. Darwin's real ghost (or me hallucinating after 24 hours of struggling to keep afloat amid a ferocious flood ) slowly vanished in thin air.
Now then, ladies & gentlemen, coming back to the, 'You have changed,' business. Each and every one of us is faced in life, with several such floods, earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, droughts, or what have you, of various intensities from time to time! For those of you who like to call a spade a spade, I would like to highlight that I mean the previous sentence in a metaphoric sense. This process of encountering various challenges is a series of small or big, good or bad, floods that change your 'comfort zone' habitat and demand for you to adapt in order to survive in it. Adapting to change is therefore a constant and dynamic process that is happening to all of us even as we read this post from start to finish. Whether it tips your balance towards becoming a better person or worse is a separate matter of discussion. But what I am trying to put across to you here, is that you don't change from one time to the next, of meeting/ speaking to the person who makes that annoying comment - you merely adapt. And my point is that adaptation is essential for survival in that changed habitat.
So next time do think twice before judging someone and making the statement, 'You have changed!' And for those of you who are made to hear this statement henceforth, refer the culprit to my post here and make sure you clarify that you haven't changed; you have simply adapted!!
Hakunna Matata!!
7 comments:
guilty of having said this.. u make sense misha
Just food for thought didi. I am almost certain that all of us have been at the giving as well as the receiving end of this sentence! :)
u said it right... but 'hey misha u have changed' sounds better than 'hey misha u have adapted' :D :D
Good read misha... Btw change is the only constant in life and we have to be the variables to fit into the equation of the change
Loved ur perspectives sunita nd swathi. Thanks for the feedback and for making time to read. c
have been both at da receiving and delivering end....bt for me change was betr ....cuz i wuld hv lived in fantasy world for a long tym then....nd as we know fantasy world is short lived ....itz important for u to manage maybe nd get used to da fact dat things r ntt wat Dey seem to b may be earlier....dts wat changes u.....compromising wide wats coming in life is maybe changing.....dats hw u survive...dts Darwins theory......dunno if i made any sense..:-P
Namaste!
Lots of food for thought. Love your writing.
Jon
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