One of the few things that are guaranteed in life – along with death and taxes – is change. Nothing stays the same, both in our personal lives and in the world itself. While we may bemoan today’s modern style and long nostalgically for the beloved way of life from our childhood, change is inevitable and we can choose to complain or embrace it. Some things in life are really annoying, like the increase in traffic, the many passwords we have to remember and spending more time hanging around in doctors’ waiting rooms as we get older. But the plus side is that we can travel more easily, communication around the world can be instant, and our medical services have saved many of us from the illnesses our parents and grandparents may have suffered from.
Life would be pretty dull if we never varied our routines, or tried new things. I try to walk a different way to work when I can, order a restaurant dish I’ve never had before and generally try to be open to new ideas.
The word change comes from the Latin cambiare, which in turn came from the Old Irish root kemb ‘to bend’. You can change places, change sides, change the subject or have a change of heart. To ring the changes, meaning ‘to vary the ways of doing something’ comes from the world of bell-ringing, and the different orders in which a peal of bells may be rung. My most recent change was changing a nappy (my grandchildren are still very young!).
Happy Puzzling!