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It was 22 years ago when I arrived in Canada and chose Calgary, Alberta to be my home. Leaving my family and friends behind, it was a new adventure for me to be in a new country without knowing anyone. That was the time I looked for a Filipino community paper and never found any, [...]
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Erwinism: Celerity in the Sea of Change

By: Erwin D. Maramat

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

—Not really Charles Darwin

The basketball world had since evolved after Michael Jordan stepped off the court for good, but that has not deterred his airness from asserting his relevance to this day. He is brazenly vocal on how the best players of this generation would never measure up to the brute nature of the game in his time, perhaps that is true, but he also dismisses the fact that the he too will have difficulty thriving in this algorithm-driven era. He fails to recognize that he was a precursor of change; ushering a hybrid of athletes who are physically imposing and intelligent supported by a team of intelligent doctors, analyst, and supporting cast. Perhaps it’s his bitterness, but to be terse, it is his underestimation of the future that has turned him blind of the possibilities. He wasn’t very accommodating to change.

Change is disruptive. Emerging innovation pushes industries unable to cope with the times on the brink of extinction. Those who are adaptive, though spasmodic, earn the rite of passage. A consummate understanding of what is to come pays dividends. Nokia was once a powerhouse of the mobile phone industry. They had it all in their hands, but what failed them was their underestimation of change. They were fully aware that the customer demands were shifting and yet complacency got the better of them which tragically led them to eventually lose ground in the race.

Change is hard, but necessary, and regardless whether you are willing to face it, the inevitable comes swiftly. Failing to convert cognizance to action often result in regrets. It is quite difficult to reconcile the dichotomy that exist between our perceived reality and reality since we are hardwired to a loop which explains why debilitating habits are hard to break.

Nostalgia sells. Whether you are willing to admit it or not, there is always a market for nostalgia. How else will you explain vinyl records? Or the re-emergence of old game consoles? Memories are being used as catalyst to reignite an already dead market. Not that there is anything wrong with making money, there is a reason why these things got scrapped, they were in the way of change.

The mere fact that our existence is fleeting, it is a must for us to maximize the use of our time. Zooming out, the vast expanse of the universe is expanding rapidly, although it still a theory, physicists state that our universe will reach a state of uniform value where it will be too cold, they call it the big freeze and sadly when it happens the timeline will have been stretched out to an extreme that making it seem that we didn’t even exist. What is even worse is that many are faithful to the tenet of being stagnant. Change is a risk worth taking.

The good old days belong to the present. Limiting beliefs tend to hold people down. I was born in a country where many people have insatiable affinity to superstition. Instead of going to a hospital they turn to quack doctors and at this day and age where you can access Facebook and Instagram anywhere in the world, they choose to live in this darkened state. There are those who still cling on to ignorance, refusing to recognize women as equal to men; there are those who believe that they are entitled to have slaves; there are those who still believe that the pigment of their skin makes them superior over others; there are those who still brutally take innocent lives because of their denomination; there are those who refuse change, because change will no longer tolerate the egocentric. The past is long gone, and much of today is wasted because we tend to dwell in the past.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
― Rob Siltanen

I once read a book entitled ‘Who Moved My Cheese’ by Kenneth Blanchard Ph.D. which as an allegorical account of two humans and two rats who found a place in the maze abundant in cheese, and that one day, the supply cheese was gone for good. It recounts the tale of two humans unable to cope with change, and although realization came in late one of the protagonist decided to move on in hopes of finding another station that might have cheese. The book is a bestseller and heavily panned with criticism because from another vantage point, it is an intimation of undermining proletariat to acquiesce. There were companies circulating the book to quell the mood of despair when downsizing employees and there’s this bit of contrasting humans with rats. However, it also conveys a strong message: we must be open to change and be willing to change, so we could make it to the next level.

Pack up your bags and go. We all have our respective baggage, whether concrete or abstract. We love to litter our lives with things and we hoard them. We plant ourselves thinking someday we would grow into Baobabs, but we are humans, we were meant to explore and discover the opulent salubrious wonders of the world. Make no mistake, it’s wonderful to have things in life, but it’s better to live your life. Whether a casket or urn, it will be too crammed to eternally house you and a mobile phone, let alone a house, so this fever of endless pursuit of junk is truly an unhealthy obsession

I’m not fast, you’re just moving too slow.

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

We can’t wait for change to happen, we must make it happen by being the change that the world so desperately needs. You can’t hope to change people either, but you can also inspire them to see the importance of change. There is always that misconception that we are living in fast-paced world, there are still those who are left wondering; clueless as to what had happened to the world they know. There is no cause to be alarmed, one just need to have a deeper understanding of managing life and time. It is times like this that we should espouse change as an impetus to propel us forward, it’s a great time to be in shape in all aspects of life. Frankly, I’m overweight and I am determined to change that, so I can run freely to pursuit beauty of our ever-changing lives. Wear your trainers, let’s go!

“Don’t spare me a change, let change spare us.”

― Erwin D. Maramat

Erwinism: Celerity in the Sea of Change

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