One stereotype of older people is that they complain that "Things aren't what they Used to be." By Things they can mean anything in the world as they know it, and what they Used to be is obviously different to what they Are Now. So change has ocurred.
Change seems to be a sore point for many people, not just those in their old age. It may not be a stereotype for a teenager to complain that their school timetable has changed when they didn't expect it to, or that facebook's new layout isn't as good as the last one, but I have definately heard both of these, and far more trivial causes for upset.
Looking at most people in western civilisation (I cannot speak for any other), the general plan in life seems to be to end with an amount of comfort and security that has been accumulated, and then for life to simply stay that way. When we have done our time in the areas of hard work, fighting to survive, and then scrimping to save, we think that the world deserves to let us take it easy until life ends.
But looking at the older generation who apparently always have reason to complain, this does not happen. The world, for some reason, disregards all the courtesy that we granted it as we were growing up and insists on continuing it's annoying habit of altering everything!
Of course, we all know that life involves change. To live is to change. Scientists have a word for something that does not change: "dead".
For an immediate example, consider your own human body. If you know of any way of preventing the aging process, you should have let someone know by now!
So is it just me, or do we seem to have spotted another one of those inconsistencies in western thinking? As a culture, we have an idea that it is possible to 'make it'. Make What? Make an end for our lives? That only happens when you stop breathing. Once set up nicely, what we want is to put our own personal world on pause. (Maybe we want to 'make' a change-proof bubble to live in?) Reality can go on without us, thanks.
I noticed this human tendancy to dislike change during my teens, and made a decision based on this observation. I knew that I did not want to become a grumpy old man who remembered when all this was trees: life based on bitterness would hardly be worth living. So to avoid this, I have decided in myself to embrace change. Not to seek it- I do not think it happens to me more than any other soul- but to decide that my reaction to small changes will not be to resent them. So when Facebook changes something again, I will not add to the already long list of statuses consisting only of people whining. Instead I will look at what is new and explore it, to eventually make an informed opinion on whether I like it or not.
By the way; note that I will not restrict myself from disliking something that is new- but I will base such an opinion on something about the item, not the fact that it is new.
I believe that the reason many people complain as much as they do is possibly because they have never taken any time to consider this logic regarding their changing world. I believe awareness is all it takes to reduce a lot of unecessary mental suffering related to this topic.
See another post about Choice...
Image Source: http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Atlas/glossary.aspx?alpha=e&id=93&lang=En
