Whether it is for what feels like the best or the worst, changes come upon us inevitably and shape our lives profoundly. When change comes in my life, often my first reaction is to turn inward. How does this affect me? What should I do? There is an inclination to think that I may, in fact, be the only person to have ever experienced this before.
Though that may be my first reaction, I'm fortunate that, usually not long after this brief but ridiculous self-indulgence, I realize that I am not the first person to have experienced this. Joy or sadness, ecstasy or sorrow, there is so little that is new. And every experience in our lives and in the lives of those around us shapes not only our lives, but also our histories.
Aldous Huxley said, "The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different."
He probably meant that in terms of the cultures, customs, systems and norms of a particular time being different in one instance than they might be in another, but I also think of it in terms of people. I know that the greatest history-making events in my life have always revolved around people.
In just a few short years, I have experienced the depth of sorrow in losing my father to cancer and the highest measure of joy in being blessed to find the person with whom I will spend the rest of my life. During both of these times, even though they represent opposite ends of the spectrum, I had moments where I thought my responsive feelings might be unique.
The onslaught of response indicated to me how wrong I was. Now, I'll admit it, I don't usually like to be wrong, but, in those situations, I was glad to be. The outreach of people who had experienced a story like mine was a great encouragement. And, though our situations may have been entirely different, we benefited from relating to one another about the things that joined us.
These human experiences vary so little throughout the course of time, which is a curse and a blessing. It is a hard truth that we will all lose someone we love. It is a wonderful truth that the joy this life affords cannot help but burst out and be shared with those around us.
There is so much we can learn from history-whether it is a personal history or one that is shared. And there is a comfort in knowing that others have gone where we are going.