The Rural Voice, 1985-01, Page 33All grades of nuts & bolts
Westward Tools
Keto Abrasives
Epp's Pressure
Washers
Scott's Industrial & Farm Supplies
R.R. 4, Tara
519-376-0283
8 miles west of Owen Sound
off Highway 21
Established
1876
FULL COVERAGE
Farm & Urban Properties
DIRECTORS & ADJUSTERS
Ken Carnochan 482-3354
Lavern Godkin 527-1877
John McEwing 523-9390
Stanley Mcllwain 524-7051
Donald McKercher 527-1837
Kenneth Moore 527-0508
Paul Rock 345-2397
J.N. Trewartha 482-7593
Stuart Wilson 527-0687
AGENTS
Banter & MacEwan 524-8376
Graeme Craig 887-9381
E.F. "Bill" Durst 527-1455
Bob McNaughton 527-1571
CALL AN AGENT
OR THE OFFICE
McKILLOP
MUTUAL
INSURANCE
COMPANY
91 Main St. S. Seaforth
Phone 527-0400
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
Back to where
we started
The world has more purity during
the first three days of January than it
has all the rest of the year. Millions of
people make New Year's resolutions.
Thousands of people quit smoking.
The air is cleaner. Hundreds of peo-
ple open diet books. The world is
thinner. Dozens of people forget old
grudges against intolerable relatives.
The world is friendlier.
A few weeks later, however, the
world is a little less pure. It's not so
easy to keep resolutions. Thousands
of people buy another package of
cigarettes. The world is a little
smokier. Hundreds of people close
their diet books. The world gets a lit-
tle fatter. Dozens of people remember
that their intolerable relatives are still
intolerable. The world gets a little
grouchier.
Resolutions are wonderful, but
they are almost impossible to keep
because they demand that a person
change. It's so much easier to follow
established patterns in our lives rather
than to invoke change. As the mod-
erator of the United Church said
recently, "The only people who want
change are wet babies." In some
ways, he is quite correct. When
change is easy and the results are
quick and positive, it's a simple mat-
ter. But when change is difficult, we
drag our feet and feel lower than a
grasshopper's ankle.
Yet, I wouldn't suggest for a mo-
ment that society is stagnant. There
are, of course, those who thrive on
changing things. Our space-age
technology wouldn't exist if there
weren't innovative people, and
neither would modern farm equip-
ment or hybrid crop varieties. Sure, I
believe in change. Matter of fact, I
want to do something monumental
with my life (but you and I both know
what birds do to monuments).
Resistance to change didn't start in
the twentieth century. I'm sure there
was at least one caveman who wanted
to stifle the discovery of fire or of the
wheel. Even changes that we welcome
now were once resisted.
Change is a funny thing. Some-
times after people change something,
they realize that their first idea was
best. But being able to change shows
flexibility. The Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food is flexible. A
few years ago people were given
grants to tear down fences. Many
people tore down their fences, often
enlarging fields and making it easier
to work the land. Last year, OMAF
introduced a program that gives peo-
ple grants to build new fences. We
were told that they would not only
help livestock but would also help to
prevent erosion. Many people built
fences. Some people made use of
both the grant to tear down a fence
and the grant to build it again.
When OMAF introduced the grant
to tear down fences, there was
change. When they offered a grant to
build them again, it was a cycle.
When our grandparents farmed using
crop rotations, it was old-fashioned.
When continuous corn was introduc-
ed showing that farmers could profit
growing this crop, it was progress.
When. research proved that mono-
culture was dangerous to the soil and
that crop rotation was beneficial, it
was a cycle.
It's getting hard to tell whether
change leads to progress or progress
leads to change or if it is all part of a
cycle bringing us back to where we
began. I guess it's fair to agree with
the remark of the old philosopher
who said, "The more things change,
the more they stay the same."
It's an interesting theory. We'll
know if he's right on the first few
days after New Year's Day, 1985. The
sky will be bluer. People will be thin-
ner. And everyone will be happier.
Many people and things will change
(for at least a few days). ❑
Phyllis Coulter lives in Stratford and
is news editor for The Rural Voice.
JANUARY 1985 31