Yeah, it's my second post for the day. I just finished reading a couple of posts that were thematically similar and thought I'd chime in on the subject. Os wrote about the possibility of an upcoming last gig with his band and the lovely Joy shared some revelations illuminated on a very recent trip. Both touched upon the subject of "evolve or dissolve".

It is a truism that (whether we like it or not) permeates just about every aspect of our lives. Change is constant. Our choices on the matter lie between being reactive or proactive. The former more often than not involves a lot of finger pointing and reciting the "It's not my fault" mantra.

I recall in my 20's thinking (in the arrogance of my youth) that I had"figured it all out" only to be faced shortly after with a sudden blast of life changing situations that challenged everything I believed in. (Ah, the absolute idealism of youth.) Still, I stubbornly held on, convinced that all the (unnecessary) attachments that I had amassed by that time would prove true when it all blew over... that I would emerge from that fiery furnace a triumphant hero ::music cue; triumphant glorious heavenly chorus:: hailed by the (now convinced) multitude with cheers of "You were right all along!" (Don't you just love these "movie moments" of mass epiphany that we project & fantasize when we are in the insidious clutches of our own hubris?)

Of course, that never happens and we are instead imprisoned and tortured by our self imposed dogma as we continue to spiral deeper into the "victim mode." We continue to wait for everything and everyone around us to change to "our way" while continuing to delude ourselves that by tightening our grip we can exert total control. Or we play the perverse "the time will come" game and of course it never does. And in that state of static we can choose either to be "inflicted by life" or to "make life happen."

How often have we seen it played out around us? The personal relationship that continues to fester into something painfully toxic because it has come to a stalemate. The business partnership that dissolves destructively into a backstabbing war just from the refusal to consider innovation. The artist refusing the adventure of "stretching" then sinking into the obscurity of a "one trick formulaic wonder". We can recognize it in others yet never do we want to admit that it would ever apply to ourselves.

And hopefully we wake up one morning with the decision to move forward by either evolving or dissolving. Either choice involves the release of our hubris.