Spirituality and Wellness
Lloyd Den Boer
Together in a World of Change
My father-in-law grew up on a tiny farm in Europe.
Whenever an airplane fl ew overhead, he used to tell
us, his entire family would race outdoors to watch.
He chuckled when he told that story, smiling at
his family’s quirky behaviour, but also shaking his
head at how much had changed within the span
of one lifetime. After all, who would give a passing
airplane more than a glance these days? So much
has changed within so little time.
Time was when people must have understood
change diff erently than we do now. We see it as
something virtually self-propelled, always moving
straight forward and at an increasing rate. “Don’t
be left behind,” we say, suggesting that keeping up
with change is a race. By contrast, Shakespeare’s
characters often described change as a circle —
change doesn’t move forward; instead, like a
wheel, change circles back on itself. As the French
expression has it, the more things change, the more
they stay the same. Change is the appearance;
permanence is the reality.
Back in the day, my high school English students
often bristled at this older view of time and change.
They understood that this idea left less room for
people to shape the future than our modern notions
do. When Hamlet says, “There’s a divinity that
shapes our ends/ Rough hew them how [w]e will,”
my students heard fatalism. They wanted ownership
of their destiny. They wanted to make something of
themselves, not to submit to whatever happened, or
failed to happen, as fortune’s wheel turned.
To give these students their due, often they were
thinking of more than their own futures. They
wanted an optimistic view of change in which
people act to make things better, not only for
themselves but also for others. After all, that is what
we moderns mean when we talk about change as
progress. We agree that progress has tamped down
diseases, fed expanding populations, lengthened
life spans, and made us more comfortable. Beyond
progress in our material lives, we want to believe
that society progresses as well. “The arc of the moral
universe is long,” we sometimes say, quoting Martin
Luther King Jr., “but it bends toward justice.” My
students, bless their hearts, wanted to be on the side
that directed change and ‘made a diff erence,’ the
side of progress.
Yet, most signifi cant changes have complex eff ects,
and not all of them are positive for every person.
Big change leaves some of us behind, mourning
whatever has been lost. Take the introduction of
writing. Writing is such a powerful tool that it’s hard
to see grounds to oppose it. Yet, according to Plato,
Socrates did oppose it, arguing that writing would
destroy memory. On this specifi c point, Socrates
was right. When a culture adopts writing, the role
of memory subsides — and not just memory in a
narrow sense, but an entire way of life by which
knowledge is carried forward across the generations
through storytelling and teachings. Given a choice,
we would choose to have writing. However, being
granted our choice, certain things are lost.
As a society, we cannot avoid change, nor
should we. My students’ attitude toward change
as progress, as action to make things better in the
world, is valid. On the other hand, the opposite
attitude emphasizing what we lose due to change
is valid too. Big change has complex outcomes. To
understand and shape it wisely takes both points of
view. We need to be together in the face of change. ●
Lloyd Den Boer is the Dean of Education at The
King’s University in Edmonton. He also taught and
administrated in elementary and secondary schools
in both BC and Alberta.
news&views SPRING 2020 | 27