Change is Hard BY ALYSSA “TWIST” LIGHT
If you struggle to keep up with what the kids are doing these days, this article is for you. If you’re flummoxed by stories of young people making millions of dollars online by doing things that seem impossible, this article is for you. And, if you’re tired of hearing things like “Stop being a stick in the mud and start using social media!”, then this article is for you. Change is hard. It’s harder when we feel defensive, or when the people around us think we’re being defensive. Our outward expressions of defensiveness often occur to others as stubbornness or “old school thinking” because we are reluctant to change. Afterall, change can be exhausting — especially constant change, like that in the world of business. Gutenberg — a tradesman who worked as a goldsmith in the 1400’s — invented the printing press during a time when books were copied by hand; ink and quill scratching each and every word onto parchment, page after page after page. One might then assume that the printing press was a great invention that improved humanity in incredibly profound ways. And, it did — but it took a long time for literacy to become widespread and therefore the demand for books was slow.
It took twelve years for the press to put out its first book — a bible. There was reluctance to learn to read and write. Not everyone thought it was possible or necessary to educate the masses. And yet, it happened. As a child, I remember visiting the Royal Ontario Museum and learning that a certain library, in the same time period as Gutenberg, boasted about having eight books. Eight. Electricity, radios, television, computers and smartphones were all new at one time — just like the Gutenberg Press was. And just like the invention that changed literacy forever, the internet is here to stay. During that time in my life, my father worked in film and television as an editor. We often sat at the dinner table talking about big thinkers. On a particular night, Dad told us about how someone was inventing a way for computers to talk to all the other computers in the whole world.
GREEN FOR LIFE FALL 2021 • 18
