Okay so here I am at Day 125, and I made the mistake to… er… I mean I made the conscious choice to update my WordPress. 🙁 All of a sudden I do not recognize anything that is going on here on my WordPress dashboard as I type.
I have been using WordPress for several years, possibly at least 5 years, and it has never changed like it just did. I feel ever-so-unslightly like I’m on a new planet. My old reaction would be to snarl at the inconvenience of the change that has been thrust upon me, and utter the kind of complaint that seems to be more and more common for people over 35, because after all, “Wasn’t it already good enough the way it was? Why does everything have to change all the time?”
On the other hand, I have become indoctrinated in the idea that “change is the only constant,” and though I wrote about this somewhat impetuously in a past post, as far as I know, there is no way to get away it. It is pointless to think that things will just “stay the same way they once were.” Things are always changing, and though the speed of cultural and technological change these days is admittedly faster than ever, there has NEVER been a time in history that hasn’t been fraught with uncertainty and filled with changes that were beyond everyone’s control to stop. If a few generations of people experienced some sort of static sense of Eden-like equilibrium, well, as far as I’m concerned, they got lucky.
I’m re-reading a book by Deepak Chopra called “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,” and in it, he recommends that we embrace the idea of uncertainty as part of life. According to him, we should factor it into our attitude and actually expect it (yeah, can you believe him? what nerve). He also talks about detachment and the importance of accepting what is so.
And change is not likely to end any time soon. That is undeniable, un-change-able truth. And this brings me back to my WordPress dashboard. True, it feels slightly weird to be using this brand new interface focused around this weird block thing, instead of what I was used to. And yet, I’m embracing it. Because, a) I know I will get used to it, b) I have had great experiences with WordPress and I’m fairly sure they thought this through carefully and determined that this new approach has merit, c) I have used other block-based plug-ins before, and I survived, and d) I can’t do a fucking thing to stop it… so I might as well accept it!
Friends, the point of tonight’s sermon: you might as well try to make friends with change… because it will be your Constant Companion!