“Much of my life has been a pilgrimage—constantly learning, changing, growing and maturing.”
–Rev. Billy Graham

Two things are certain in life: death and change (don’t give me that taxes crap; I’ve got friends and acquaintances that haven’t filed or paid in a decade [and yet have no qualms about bitching about how the government spends money]).

Personally, I think these are the exciting things, the entire point of getting out of bed in the morning.  Who wants a world of the same thing, day in, day out, utter predictability waiting around every corner?

Right.  Republicans.

I hope never to look back twenty — hell, one — years and think that nothing has changed in my world.  Especially to realize that I haven’t changed, that I’m the same person underneath the new gray hairs and the ever-increasing evidence of gravity. Obviously, I hope to find more balance and moderation (even in my balance and moderation) as the years pass, but even a shift to some extreme is better than stagnance.  Stagnation?  Staying put, either way.

It’s frightening to me to look around at some people and realize that, by and large, they are the same people that I met ten or twenty years ago.  It means that they haven’t grown, they haven’t learned, they haven’t moved.  Decades have passed, and they’re still right where they were.

Does anyone really imagine at 20 or even 40 that they’ve got it all figured out?

Is it possible they do?  Sure.  Likely?  Not.

I’m glad that there are constants in my life. Laws of physics, personalities traits, strengths, weaknesses, knowledge. But even those things might change without warning.

The best static element in my life is the group of people that I call friends: Wade, Kevin, Richard, Andrew, my parents and siblings, Neely, Jonas, Chance and Carlos and Eric and CL.  Even a great lengthy friendship may shift or dissipate while you blink (Daniel and I had fifteen years between us, as an example), but that’s part of the dynamics of life, isn’t it?