The sign was courteous and friendly while also being relevant. It adapted the old and the new. The old was grounded in being polite and inviting. The updated approach used QR codes to take each passenger to a shared, current and relevant place. It was an acknowledgement that things change faster than the ability to update every sign in the network. The new approach opened the door for supporting new languages, lines, and services.
Once something works, I tend to leave it that way. My hairstyle has changed over the years, only to return to how I arranged it in the first grade. If one had skipped the long hair yeas and a few variations, one would think I had never discovered anything more than my mother’s way of combing it for me as a child. It is as if knowledge and insights continued to grow outside of my awareness. I could have looked, could have embraced more.
Learning and growing is an essential part of living. This realisation comes, for me, with a mix of emotions. I consider new insights with excitement and anticipation. I also face fears and doubts. I do not know what could happen if I am wrong. The past appears golden because I know I survived. In stark contrast, the future is often dark and unknown. Change amplifies the past and the future in ways that slow my thinking and dampen my desire for change.
Yesterday’s answer may not be today’s solution. I think of the old ways of keeping in touch, letters mainly. So much in life has changed. Very few today write a letter by hand. Emails, texts, and social media have replaced my grandparents’ solution. What has not changed is the essence of staying in touch. Then and now, it all begins with one’s heart and the openness to be touched by another.
As I look to the day ahead, I remember a writer’s old words; “’I’m here to do it your way,’ [as] he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan.” (Hebrews 10.9)
