Read By: Douglas Kearney
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From Douglas Kearney\'s "Playing the Changing Same:"
There\\u2019s a saying that goes, \\u201cthe more things change the more they stay the same.\\u201d It\\u2019s worn, maybe, but not played out. More than whatever truth it holds, I\\u2019ve been drawn to the maxim\\u2019s symmetry and paradox, something I might describe to my students as holding a contradiction in its hands.
Yet, it does make an argument. If I take the saying and break it down, as a philosopher might have once suggested, to its very last compound, I find myself at: \\u201cchange/same.\\u201d In this, I see the formula for \\u201cpattern\\u201d: a structure that requires\\u2014and amplifies\\u2014the simultaneous presence of change and sameness. In full, the adage includes \\u201cmore things,\\u201d and this, I think is important to remember. In \\u201cmore things\\u201d\\u2014imprecise and multiplicitous\\u2014we have the opportunity for variation, difference, changes on the changes. These should not, however, distract us from recognizing the big pattern, the changing same at the saying\\u2019s bottom. And that big pattern? It stays happening despite the differences playing over its surface.
To read the full essay, visit 92y.org/ReadBy
Music: "Shift of Currents" by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0
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