Change

As of lately, there has been a lot of talk about change. It's true. If you don't believe me, try standing idly at any common sidewalk and listen to what the people passing by are talking about. Yes, I know that it's not ethically correct to be eavesdropping on other people's conversations, but that is not the point I am trying to make here. The point I am trying to make is that people are talking a lot about change.

Nowadays, you can hardly enter your local bookstore without coming across one of those unattractive looking self help books that touch upon the subject. Neither can you sit down and unwind at a coffeeshop without spilling your cup of cuppacino when you accidentally overhear the couple next to you arguing whether He should change his diet routine just for Her sake.

Sheesh.

If you ask me, change has been around for a long time, and it'll be around for quite some time more. It makes me wonder why people are making such a fuss over it - verbaly - now. I mean, if you want to change, go on ahead. There's no need for you to announce it to the world (or buy one of those unattractive looking self help books, for that matter). In fact, more often than not, the moment you declare your ambitious ambition to change, you end up reverting back to your old ways. Which makes the whole affair of announcing your change look like a big waste of physical, emotional, financial (and of course, salivary) resources.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't change. No, no. I do not mean to say that at all. By all means, go ahead and change - if it's for the better. Do change your diet plan if you've just been told by your doctor that you have a case of Familial Hyperlipidemia. Or do change your hairstyle if your best friend says that it makes you look like Donald Trump (which may not be necessarily be a bad thing, especially more so if you're in the real estate business). If the change is for the better, I have nothing against it. But if you don't mind, I'd rather you keep to yourself the plan to change and not announce it loudly as to disturb other people.

If somebody came up to me with the intention to change and asked for my advice on it, it would be this: Keep a small jar on the kitchen counter. When you have come back home late at night after work and buried the keys under the tiles (for safety reasons, obviously), make it a habit to put inside that small jar the change you have accumulated throughout the day. I suggest you donate the smaller ones to the needy, or dump them onto your neighbour's lawn. Which might explain the severe look on his face everytime you greet him in the mornings. But that is of no importance to what we are discussing here. Remember, change is inevitable, but if not managed wisely, it will cause an unsightly bulge in the coin section of your wallet.