Changes

 How many of you have seen the Matrix? If there's one single person who has not seen the original movie or its following sequels or the various prequels and side-stories, both live-action and animated, I will be quite surprised. Seriously, anyone who hasn't seen 'em has either been comatose or indifferent. Now, this is not to promote the franchise, but rather to emphasize just how far-reaching it has been. Now, I'm sure to those of you who have seen it, you could list various factoids and tidbits about it and all associated matters. But here's one I'm sure the majority of you probably don't know.

 The writers/directors of the movie were Larry & Andy Wachowski, who had a few other credits to their name before embarking on this. This much is known. What isn't known is that Larry now goes by the name Lana. For those of you not keeping track, Larry Wachowski is now a woman. In fact, when promoting their latest movie, Cloud Atlas, they referred to themselves as Wachowski Starship. 

 I begin this entry with a mention of gender reassignment not to bring awareness to this, but as a sedge-way to another concept. Change. 

 We've all had them. Hell, if I could list the various changes I've gone through in the past 3 years, in no significant order, let's just say your social security would expire before I even got close to finishing. And if you still had an extra few minutes, I'd go back further. Change, regardless of your interpretation, is the universal catalyst for alteration. In its simplest form, its both an ending and a beginning. Sounding preachy? Yeah, I thought so. Lemme back up.

 The world is in a constant state of change, which affects most, if not all of life and existence, sometimes all at once. History, philosophy, education, perspective....none of it is the same now as it was sometime in the past. Whatever we see may be deemed antiquated or simply obsolete. It might be inspiring and traditional. Whatever your view, its is agreed upon that they are the off-ramps towards the future. Perhaps we can call it the simplified version of universal evolution. 

 However, the problem with change is that it is not always welcomed. Its not always embraced with open arms. Its not always heralded with hope and faith. For some, change is see as a big evil, a bad thing that should never happen. I won't lie, in some regards I'm one of those people. In fact, at one time or another, we all were and still are. 

 We tend to dislike change because it usually draws us to something new, something unexpected and occasionally something surprising. Expectations can be had, both positive and negative, to that end. But ultimately, we have no idea what to expect.

 Ultimately, be it good or bad, positive or negative, change is inevitable. Change in the dynamics of your lifestyle, in who will be in your life, what you'll be doing, where you'll be doing it, how you'll be doing it and for what reasons, just to name a few. In a world of never-ending alterations, the fact that we will always have changes may be one of the few, if not the only thing in this existence that might always stay the same. 

 A bit of a mind job, isn't it? The only absolute certainty in a world of endless variations is that there will be endless variations. So the question is, do you meet these with hope or despair? With determination or hopelessness? 

Aw hell, at the end of the day, who even knows? I say, let's ride this bad boy 'til the wheels fall off. If nothing else, at least the future should be more interesting than the past. And if not, then maybe THAT needs to change.