Impact

The impact of any society effected change could never be properly measured because the impact of anything on society is the human impact the impact it has on millions of individuals. The real impact of a war is the impact of the amount of families that are grieving over lost loved ones. We can put a number to the dead, but we can not measure the grief, to try to measure grief, would be to try to compair grief, and would be insulting to all who feel it. The impact of giving people access to health care could be measured in the money it costs to do so, but that is undermining the importance of that care to the people who it has helped, the real value of it is in the way it has changed their lives, and trying to measure quality of life or compair it in any terms other than better or worse undermines the importance it holds for the person living that life.
We like to try to measure everything, so we can say we did the best we could with what we had, and so that we can prove it, to ourselves, and to everyone involved. But all the human feelings, to things we effect, the way we really have an impact on each other, can not be measured or compared. We do not have to prove to people involved what we have done, they already know, their feelings are strong. We don't need a way to measure it. Good or bad they know, and by seeing these people as individuals with lives and feelings we'll know it too.

Everything Stays The Same

Everything changes but everything also stays the same. We vote in elections for government, we have a new leader, but we have the same system, the same groups of people in different numbers and names making very simular decisions. Sometimes signifigant permanant changes are made by them, but the system they work on with and through stays the same. The society we live in stays the same throughout history, shops open and close, people gain and loose jobs, but we still live in a society that works through us gaining money through work or trade to swap for things we want. Music may have changed through rock, rap, dance, grunge, tecno, folk, and a million more, but from the ninteen thirties and probably earlier young people have always played whatever type of music they like much louder than old people would like. illegal drugs are confiscated, corrupt police are investigated and fired, but there are still junkies looking for and finding high's and kid's being sold or given recreational drugs at parties and clubs. We have anti discrimination work laws, so all races, religions and people of all levels of mental health are given jobs, but we still do not treat all of us as equals. We have the medicine and technology to cure many illnesses, but there are many ilnesses that we remain unable to cure, and many people who are never treated for their cureable ilnesses. We are simple humans these are only a few of the things we have created and adjusted to. Our way of life, is acepted as normal to us, everything we see around us in society, has alway's been there, so we asume it always will, and we have made ourselves comfortable in that.

Everything Changes

Everything is always changing, we vote for it in elections, we search for it in job's and we make it ourselves every now and then in our housing decorations and our dinner menu's. The larger of these brings about what we see as a better way of life, a permanent change in the right direction. The smaller of these bring about a little excitement keeping things new and fun. We see these changes as good, yet we expect them, we have a preparation period where we decide who to vote for, what job we want, what furniture or food to purchase. We have this time to prepare for the change and the decision for this change or how this change will work is at least in part decided by us. This allows us to feel comfortable about this change. When we are shocked by change, especially when it is not our choice, we can find ourselves quite disturbed even by tiny temporary changes. Changes like the local coffee shop having run out of full cream or lite milk, having to drink what is not our normal preference or having to walk a little further to get our preferred cup of coffee can play on our mind all day, it can put us on edge and make it much easier for people to annoy us.
Nothing is certain, anything could happen, we know that things always change, we have come to accept that the people we work with will come and go changing jobs, buildings will be knocked down and built again, that our friends will become pregnate, have children and extend their families, governments and the rules that come with them will change, but we are thrown into shock when the almost insignificant daily routine we follow is disrupted only slightly just this once.

Secrets

There is something about secrets that makes us curious, some sort of mystery, the knowledge that we can not know it or should not know it grabs our attention and soon we find ourselves taking peeks, attempting to uncover what we do not know. Peeks, at what is going on next door, disappointed although relieved to find it is just the TV not a domestic violence scene. Peeks at celebrities in magazines, trying to hide the normal parts of their lives. it can't be that hard to get attention when all we have to do is hide from it. There is a thriving market of the sneak preview, but does it go as far as people being able to sell us the stories of normal people, can they make money off us selling us each others lives (as facebook retains the rights to.) or would we grow bored of peeking at people we do not know, as many of us have grown bored with looking at what our friends allow us to, would we stop looking at their pictures the way we have done for the pictures of the parties we did not attend.

All or nothing

There are so many ways of approaching the things we want to do and achieve and get done. While the healthiest way to have a go at anything is to try and give it a rest and try it again, the most efficient way is to go all out. To give it everything you’ve got, to pick up a guitar for the first time and say ‘in three weeks I will be able to perform this new song I heard on the radio, at a party’, and then to go for it, to neglect the other aspects of life and put it before everything. This is not commonly considered healthy or recommendable because the other aspects of life that get pushed into the background and ignored and neglected can be important like tests or vital like eating. After all as much as we want to get good at something fast, or get something done fast, we do not want to end up like the person who starved to death because they did not stop playing world of warcraft. We want to get good at it, but we still want to work and socialise and everything else. What we need to consider is wether in this circumstance how efficient do we need to be, and how much of a priority do we make it. Do we give it two hours a day to be top priority or do we just do it as we have the time, or do we go all out and not eat for three days? Do we risk being hospitalised over this?