Adaptability
“The
trick in life is learning how to deal with it.”
Helen
Mirren
If that
seems like an over-simplification, think about it. I’m sitting here in my
kitchen looking out the windows at snow-covered tree limbs and rooftops. Two
days ago, it was 79 degrees, with a heat index of 82. Up Interstate 65, in
Kentucky, people are still picking through the rubble of their homes and
businesses. The tornado that leveled two-hundred miles of ground was completely
random. Most of life is, in fact, completely random, but even when you plan and
execute your plan, you have no idea what the outcome will be. So, how do we get
comfortable with life’s randomness?
Helen
Mirren tells us in that little, short sentence above. “Learn how to deal
with it.” Adaptability is part of intelligence. One can have all the
intellect in the world, can even be a genius on paper, but if they cannot apply
what they know in the world, their intelligence is moot. When Darwin developed
his theory regarding “survival of the fittest,” it had to do with adaptability—the
ability of animals to adapt to changing conditions was key to survival.
Dinosaurs didn’t have it. Mammals did.
The
ability to cope with change is a testament to human resilience. The image that
comes to mind is the United Kingdom during World War II—people sent their
children to the countryside to protect them, and then they went on with life as
usual. They conducted business as normally as possible, ran to the air raid shelters
when the sirens sounded, blacked out their windows at night, cared for their
sick and injured even when they had no medical background before the war, and
stayed calm enough to think clearly even when they were terrified. They adapted
to the conditions on the ground. The people in Kentucky will, too. Not because
they are super heroic, but because they must.
The
ability to adapt is key to moving forward. I think about my own family (and
probably yours too) who lived during the Great Depression. They lost
their homes and their businesses, and life as they knew it. So, they adapted by
moving in together, operating a boarding house, growing vegetable gardens,
raising chickens, and trading for things they couldn’t grow. The nation thought
them “hillbillies,” but they adapted to poverty better than the affluent men on
Wall Street who jumped off bridges rather than face it.
We live
in changing times. There is cause for anxiety, no doubt. But there is also
cause for optimism. We don’t know yet what will be required of us because of climate
change, the threatening atmosphere of our national and international politics,
or our economic disparity. Here’s what we do know—we will adapt. We will learn
the lessons these challenges have to teach us. We will persist. Not because we’re
the “greatest nation on earth” or “especially blessed by God” but because we want
to survive—and hopefully, we have the intelligence to know that and the will to
make it happen.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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