by Nancy Linenkugel
Contributor
In the 1972 hit movie "What's Up, Doc?" Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand) is talking with Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal) and says, "I know I'm different, but from now on I'm going to try and be the same." "The same as what?" asks Howard. "The same as people who aren't different."
That's been a favorite phrase of mine over many years. Change is everywhere around us, is an expected part of our daily lives, and is one of those keep-up-with requirements that presents itself each day. Change is in our homes, in our families, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our media, in our customs, and in our everything. It's not enough to have a perfectly good pair of comfortable shoes; if they're not the latest design they get tossed to the back of the closet.
We easily tire of things. An acquaintance has a different living room furniture arrangement every couple months simply because she gets tired of the same couch in the same spot looking in the same direction. "That's why there are wind chimes in this world, Nancy. The wind isn't ever the same from day to day and I don't want to be, either."
The Persian poet and mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi said, "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." How wise. Do external changes really matter if I'm not aligned interiorly? Judy Maxwell had it right all along by focusing change on what she could and would do.
[Nancy Linenkugel is a Sylvania Franciscan sister and chair of the department of Health Services Administration at Xavier University, Cincinnati Ohio.]