“The gathering edge of change”
In 2017, my favorite authors, Sharon Lee and Steven Miller, had a new book, The Gathering Edge. I preordered it. When I received it, it was a marathon reading session. I usually read the newest Liad book once quickly, then a second reading to better understand the plot, and sometimes a third to study the writing. I didn’t consider the title until recently.
My own series has a main theme of dealing with change. I have three of the books done and two more in the works. Each of the two that were available on Amazon have subtitles dealing with change. The battle to make needed changes in the society of a planet is the backstory of all of the books.
As I re-read The Gathering Edge for a third or fourth time, I noticed a phrase I had missed. On three occasions, the main characters use the gathering edge of change. They are involved in activities that will cause major changes in their universe. In fact, they are leading the change, and it is fraught with difficulties and danger.
Change is ubiquitous in our universe. Some is forced. Some is organic. Some is fearful. I am of the opinion that the only constant in the universe is change. Nothing else.
Marcus Aurelius, writing in the 100s of the common era, agreed. “The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.” (Aurelius, Book 4, Section 3i, p. 38) In some of his longer journal entries, and I firmly believe that is the best explanation for this book, he laments the tendency of most to fight against change. I have to admit that I was pleased to find my thoughts aligned with this famous emperor of Rome.
Some fundamentalists insist that the world has always looked like it does today, one can only pity the quality of their education. I am reminded of a graduate student who having been home schooled in a strict Biblical curriculum, abandoned a $30,000 summer program scholarship at a midwestern university. When he returned to our campus, he told me that they were trying to destroy his faith by talking about climate change and the age of the earth. He even rejected the idea that we were circling the sun. All the objects up in the sky were circling us. Earth was the center of Creation. Anyone who told you differently was in league with the devil.
All I could do was invoke one of my favorite sayings: Argue with no true believer. What you ask is a True Believer? You have met them. They have truth with a capital T and nothing you say or show them will change what they believe. They are found across the arc of opinions, from the far left to the far right, anarchists to authoritarians, oligarchs to egalitarians, theist to atheist. They will quote you chapter and verse of their sources and dare you to refute their experts. To attempt it is an exercise in futility, certain to raise your blood pressure.
The rocks under my house were once sandy beaches in a large ocean. The sand in the creek bed is that sand coming unbound and returning to form more rocks. As I approach the end of my life, I too must acknowledge how much I have changed. It is not a defect of creation; it is the basic operating system.
Change is the only constant. Embrace it.
Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. Translated by Gregory Hays, Modern Library, 2003.
Lee, S., Miller, S., (2017) The Gathering Edge, Baen Publishing Enterprise, Riverdale NY
