It was great
soaking up my Mum’s company in Northern Ireland this past
summer. She is ever good-natured and easy going. How
different the rest of the world would be if there were more like
her. Mind you, thank goodness there is only one of me. I
am difficult company. Argumentative, challenging,
confrontational and moody. Enough said!
In Northern
Ireland they have moved the post offices. I have become
accustomed to stopping elderly shoppers and asking them if they know
where the PO has moved. Invariably, they lead me to where
the post office used to be and then stand blinking in confusion as to
what has happened. I know the feeling. In towns
all over the post offices have been transported from where they have
been for decades. In this unpredictable world, not even
this has remained unaltered. Suddenly, I feel like the
elderly, confused by the speed of change I see around me. When
a local person leads me to a non-existent post office, I feel an
irrational urge to commiserate and give them a hug in sympathy at all
this shuffling. It must be due to closures happening all
over the place.
Another
shocking change is the silence of electric cars or hybrids.
Here in Malta I was walking down Stella Maris St in Sliema when I was
nearly run over by one. Their silence means there is no
warning, you don't hear them at all. These machines may reduce
the demand on our fossil fuels but they are killing a
disproportionate number of us. Suddenly, we are realizing
just how much we use our ears to protect us from road accidents. Do
a search on this topic and simply everyone is protesting at the
deaths resulting.
“And
that, it turns out, is a problem. Thanks to the Pedestrian
Safety Act of 2010,
by this summer the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration
is required to initiate a rulemaking process for minimal vehicle
noise—not how quiet, but how loud a
car must be. Hybrids and electric cars are too quiet for
the blind or even the fully sighted to hear them coming.
hybrids
and electric vehicles are 37 percent more likely to hit walkers
and 66 percent more likely to collide with cyclists than traditional
gas-powered cars.”
Others are
making the same point,
These cars are
just too silent! So proposed legislation is trying to make them
noisier. Change is hard to cope with and the elderly find it
hardest of all. Shuting post offices may seem a small step but
these local centres served a multitude of needs in small communities.
Isolation kills and shared spaces are becoming harder to find.
Don't get me wrong change can be good but change for change's
sake is questionable.
I used to
bemoan the changes in the education system. The endless
re-writes of course materials, the constant proposal of new teaching
methods and strategies. Within a few years a newer model would be in
vogue. No one seemed to realise that just as plants grow
organically so should education systems. Instead changes are
instigated that mean a whole generation of kids emerged less numerate
and literate. Decades later educational systems reap the costs
of wholesale changes that actually did harm not good. The sad
truth is when you have a mediocre teacher, after ten years they
actually learn to present their stuff better. They learn
techniques that help them improve and the classes benefit as a
result. Today's system requires yearly complete re-structuring
both of material and methodology. That mediocre teacher never finds
their feet. They continually chase their tail and are made to
feel that what they did before was wrong, inadequate and old
fashioned. Their despair and disintegration haunts school
corridors and staff rooms up and down the country. The brilliant
teachers suffer even more because instead of doing what they were
born to do well, they are shackled and blinkered to perform like show
ponies. A show that will be re choreographed each year with
relentless persistence by the powers that be. Even when successful
they are a mere shadow of what was really possible.
So electric
cars, closing post offices and our education system: what am I
actually saying here? Well, a little bit of reflection on
things usually allows you to see if progress has been achieved or
not. That daily, weekly, monthly or yearly pulse taking lets
you feedback whether adjustments are in the right direction or not.
You can then make appropriate small alterations to improve.
Best practice is achieved when that process in built into our
systems and ourselves. Bringing ourselves to account each day
would mean we could have a shot at making tomorrow a better one.
Meeting as communities and consulting on the problems facing our
neighbourhoods would help take the pulse of the wider group. Making
small goals and achieving them would empower local communities to
make bigger improvements and to learn from them. Mistakes will
happen but a feeling of ownership helps ease the pain. After all, we
all make mistakes each day but usually they do teach us something. In
that light even an apparent disaster can reap good results. Without
those shared spaces change is seen as something imposed by others.
Something over which we have no control or say. Our
resentment and helplessness grows. There is no learning, only
an growing awareness of the chaos and disingration that underpins
nearly every institution around us.
My father in
his eighties had some sound advice. He used to walk five miles
every morning. If he bought new shoes, he suffered. If he
changed the walking route too drastically he would wreck his knees
and be off his feet for weeks. If he changed his diet
substantially his digestion would be affected. If doctor's
changed his medication (probably finding cheaper suppliers) he could
feel the difference on his walk. His advice was - when
you are past a certain age you are like a well oiled machine running
in set grooves. Don't make mad changes. Don't leave that
machine in the garage unused, don't fool about with the fuel for fun
and don't tackle unknown mountainous routes. Everything needs
to be in equilibrium and finding that perfect balance means small
adjustments to keeping things running smoothly. Then you are
able to notice when life is getting better or you are heading off
a cliff!
So may the
changes in your life today be small measured and positive. May
you have time to reflect on their results. And hopefully all of
our tomorrows will be better.
