On the first day of my college philosophy class the professor asked, by a show of hands, if it was possible to step into the same river twice. Almost all of my classmates thought that of course you could step into the same river twice. I didn’t raise my hand. The professor noticed this and asked me why? I told him that because rivers flow and time constantly moves it was not possible to step into the same river twice. The river wasn’t the same river the second time it was stepped into nor was the person that stepped into it. If nothing else, they were both older. My professor agreed with me and announced that there is one universal constant in life. That one constant is flux. Everything that ever happens everywhere is in a constant state of flux. What is flux? Flux simply means change.
Life is constantly changing and you never know when and how it will change. Last night I was home relaxing watching American Idol. Outside there was an early spring mixture of snow, hail and rain. Other than the weather it was just a typical Tuesday night with nothing going on. Then the phone rang. How often is it that our lives suddenly change and it begins with the phone ringing? The caller ID said it was coming from Nicky’s (my nephew/god son) cell phone. This in itself wasn’t unusual. My nephew is a responsible, caring young man. He’s taking some evening classes at the local community college two nights a week. For convenience sake on the nights that he has classes instead of going home he sleeps at our house. So getting a call from him on a night he’s expected to be with us telling us he’s going to be late or that he’s already eaten, or that he’s going to the gym isn’t out of the ordinary. My wife answered the phone and it wasn’t that typical phone call. He was calling from his car where he was pinned in because he had just been in an accident. Shortening the story, other than some superficial burns on his arms from the airbag and his knee being somewhat banged up, he’s expected to be fine.
On October 14, 2001 my son Robby was diagnosed with leukemia. He was 12 years old. He underwent 3 ½ years of treatment and is fine today. It goes without saying that his, my wife’s and my lives were profoundly changed because of that diagnosis.
My point in writing about change is that there is no avoiding it. And being that there is no avoiding it we have to accept and deal with it. You’ll notice I didn’t say embrace it. Who would want to embrace having their child diagnosed with leukemia? Or having their car totaled? No sane person would embrace those situations. However we can and must deal with changes. On the night of learning about Robby’s leukemia my wife Janice and I were devastated. This devastation lasted just that night. Janice stayed with Robby at the hospital while I went home to care for our dogs and get some essentials. When I got home I sat on the couch and bawled my eyes out. Naturally I prayed. I also sent an email to every one of my contacts letting them know what was happening. The next day I went to the hospital where Janice and I set our minds on what had become the one overriding goal in our lives, curing our son. From that point on we dealt with this change that fate had put in our path. We didn’t embrace it, but we did deal with it. And that is what everyone has to do with change.
