The nature of change and growth...after my last post, I began to think about this more and more. What causes change in a person? Is it an external impetus that facilitates the change in an individual's psyche or is change, by nature, entirely internal?
In relating this to this trip, I think it is evident that people who chose to go on this trip already know they want to challenge themselves...it is an internal choice that has already been made to take the opportunity to experience external challenges (ie. travel). There may be some trepidation about the experience and fear of homesickness, but ultimately, the choice is made to go on the trip - to push oneself to change oneself by experiencing new things. Accordingly, there is already a pre-determined NEED for change in choosing to go on this voyage. Does the voyage itself change the people on this trip or does this trip attract people who already are predisposed to changing themselves? Is it the external challenges that change people or the internal impetus to follow through with the intent to change?
Instinctively, I'm inclined to say it is the latter. I think, by temperament (or genetics or something biological), some people are more inclined than others to push themselves (granted, sometimes it's pushing oneself over a cliff and being one's own worst enemy at times...), but I'm inclined to believe that there is a certain "adventure gene" in people that leads them to gravitate towards these types of experiences. (Wasn't there a study done regarding genetics and people who took extreme risks???...I seem to remember something was done in this vein a while ago) Maybe it's the same gene that leads people to get antsy quickly when things aren't moving forward or when things stagnate. Admittedly, I'm likely in this category...is this a uniquely American perspective on how one controls one's life? To a degree, yes. Americans, on the whole, tend to feel a sense of control over their own destiny. The concept that anyone can become president, for instance, is one that finds reiteration in American popular culture - when the fact of the matter is that this simply is not true. Wealth and the opportunity that wealth buys (and a dose of luck) plays a huge role in who has power in the U.S. Yet the myth that anyone could be president if one just tries hard enough still is perpetuated to placate the masses into believing one can have power if one just tries hard enough. Having people believe they have power serves a purpose though. What is this purpose? Why is it at the foundation of the American belief system? These are questions I will likely pose to my students on the ship...so if you are reading this in advance of setting sail, give it some thought...
I digress...the original purpose of this post was to reflect on change and growth. Regardless of one's culture, change and growth are inevitable...for some that occurs faster and more radically than it does for others. Why?
I recently perused quotes online about the nature of change and growth. For whatever reasons, these quotes resonated as being especially salient.
- They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. - Andy Warhol
- It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. - Charles Darwin
- It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. - Epictetus
- A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change. - Katharine Butler Hathaway
- Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - Leo Tolstoy
- The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it. - Marcus Aurelius
- Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. - John F. Kennedy
- Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. - Miriam Beard
- Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain
No comments:
Post a Comment