Wednesday, March 09, 2005

I think my paradigm just shifted.

"Paradigm" and "shift" are two words that go together like "wreak" and "havoc." Some words were just meant for each other. Paradigms don't "change" or become "altered." They always "shift." Words are funny.

You always have a paradigm, even when you don't know what it is. When you're growing up (and I mean from year zero onward), your view of the world shifts constantly. As you become more of an individual, your worldview changes to fit that. The younger you are, the less of a paradigm you have created, so shifts are more common.

For example, when I was about 17, a friend of mine named Walter Whitney said, "Come on over and I'll play you some albums." It was Yes and Todd Rundgren, and I loved them from that day forward. They shifted my paradigm. I can point to other similar events in my personal history where something happened that changed how I see things, and I'm sure you can too. They're anchored by entertainment events like music and movies and books, but of course events like accidents and deaths do the same.

Why doesn't this happen when you get older? As your paradigm develops, it becomes harder for things to have a real impact on it. The older you get, the more your volume of experiences grows and any particular change is only a small percentage of that. I'm a firm believer in the percentage way of looking at things. When I see my first movie, it's 100% of the movies that I have seen. When I see the 50th, the percentage has dropped and has less impact on my paradigm.

What if your paradigm suffers some structural damage? What if some of the basic pillars that make up your paradigm are changed? That weakens the entire structure of your worldview, and it lets something come along and have a large impact on your paradigm. The Trek analogy would be that your shields are pretty much used to functioning at 100% when you've been around for a few decades. But if you have some engineering failures, the shield strength drops and a phaser blast gets through. Jesus Christ, I can't believe that was the best analogy I could find. Please fill in your own "castle defended" metaphor here.

Anyway, here's the point. If you become susceptible to a paradigm shift, you can have one of those experiences like you had when you were younger. You can discover something and have it change the way you look at things. This is a terrific opportunity. Who doesn't want to look at the world with teenaged eyes again, full of wonder, even if just for a moment?

Sometimes it's a good idea to let down the drawbridge.

2 comments:

Kathy said...

I suppose it would be presumptuous and nosy to wonder aloud (or in type) exactly what the catalyst for your parameter shift was.

However, how odd that you would say something like that today. I looked around the shop today while I was alone there for an hour and wondered to myself, "How long am I going to do this? Isn't it time for something else?" And not just a little something else. A big something else.

Now I just have to figure out what that is. ;)

Shocho said...

It was kind of an obvious omission that I didn't mention what that was. It's cool that it got you thinking, though, I like that. You should do what you're doing as long as you're happy with what you're doing, and if you're not you should do something else. How's that for fatherly advice? (I am a father, after all.)

Anyway, it was that Tori Amos woman. I have seriously thought about changing the name of my blog to "Anyway," since I can't seem to make a post without it.