Editorial September 25, 1995 Issue

What it takes to change the course of history radically

Russ Gerber

Our own history is a record of the development, the changes, the discoveries, the achievements, the battles and setbacks, as well as the victories, in our lives. We may not record our personal history in document form. It may be only a record of memory. Whatever the case, history shows us something important. It shows the evolution of thought. We should remember this point, particularly when we're faced with long-standing difficulties.

Maybe there is a conflict between relatives. A history of poor performance at work or school. There might be a situation similar to that of a friend I spoke with recently. Many years ago he and his wife moved into a neighborhood not too far from a university. They soon discovered it was a neighborhood with a long history of late-night parties and too much noise. My friend commented, however, that lately he has noticed a change—there has been a steady decline in the noise level. Concurrently, there have been changes in administration policies at the university, as well as changes in the attitude and behavior of many of the students.

The good news is that thought can change. It can be transformed and regenerated. And so can the course of our lives. This may seem pretty obvious, and yet so often we let something have a kind of built-in permanence because it has a long history. We've allowed something to be so impressive that we give it an authority it doesn't really have. Somewhat like a snowball rolling down a snow-covered mountainside, gathering more momentum and more snow as it continues. The longer it rolls, the more snow it gathers, and the more unstoppable it seems. And so, looking in this way at years of decline, endless wars, or ongoing problems in a neighborhood, we might believe such long-standing troubles are formidable and very likely unstoppable.

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