Fr. T.O. Sebastian
[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hange is inevitable. The old order gives way to the new. The new generation leaves the old. The old if they remain static, will find themselves irrelevant. We are told in our training period that cabbages grow better if they are transplanted. We are also told, to bloom where we are planted. We also know that some plants, if transplanted die off while others thrive.
But the question is how many transplants one can survive? It is a fact that people do change from one locality to another, from one job to .another looking for better prospects. But there is always some reluctance to move from one setting to another. If you grow up in a locality, you are familiar with the people there, its fields, mountains, lakes and rivers. You do feel a separation or a tearing apart from you these settings which are so intrinsically linked to you. Even the very trees in your compound will have several stories to tell of you. I was so fond of a tree on whose branches I sat and read out my lessons and prepared for class. .It was on the same tree that my father provided a swing for all of us to play. If you look at any group of people working outside their locality or state, they will always show a preference for their place of birth. They develop nostalgia for their own place however undeveloped it may be. There is always a joy in getting back to one’s own place of birth. There is always a joy in home-coming. But today one cannot limit himself to his native place or to his home for one’s growth and development. Today we accept the principle of the global village. The whole world is a big village. Because the connectivity established in the world, today you can stay in India and find out what are the vacancies for jobs in America and apply for them and get them. Once you have a job, you will have to go there and start working. In the mean time you will have to make adjustments at the work place and in the locality where you reside. There you have to adapt yourself to the new found situation and adjust to the new exigencies of the times just for your survival. You are brought up in a special environment and society in a specific village India. Now your children are growing up with you in America with the kids of their own age. Your kids will make certain demands from you which you are not accustomed to in your own youth. Yet you have to adapt and adjust for the sake your children. If you fail to do so it would sound disaster for you and your family.
Life is in a tension between the old and the new between the new generation and the old. Life always calls for a change to something new and something strange. The success of living depends on how best you can ensure the survival of the old and the success of the new. The inevitable tension between the old and the new has to be resolved without sacrificing either the old or the new. This requires understanding, adapting and adjustment from both the parties.
