Redefining ’New’

Life brings change. It’s practically the only guarantee life does give us. We are born, we grow up, we meet people, we study, we find work we (hopefully) like, while locations, situations, work, interests, and so much else comes and goes as we navigate our journey. As someone who grew up moving to one city after another during my first twenty-or-so years, everything in life was always changing, from my address, to my school, to my friends, to my interests, and interestingly enough, it taught me to enjoy what was there right now, because who knew how long it would be a part of my life? It also taught me to be excited about new beginnings, seeing new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new ways of living, so much so that the ‘newness’ became a thing itself for me. New things still excite me. And starting over, and over, and over again created a cycle of everything always being fresh and exciting. After all, isn’t that what life is? I was sure it was, as that was my experience, and I was puzzled by people who had grown up in the same house, in the same town, with the same friends, doing the same things they had always done, and they seemed to enjoy it. Even more puzzling was their view that my life would have been a terrible thing to go through, and they felt a bit sorry for me that I had to endure it. The truth of the matter, of course, is somewhere in the middle, or perhaps floating above it all.

The expectation of new, fresh life in front of me, was, of course, simply how I saw it. There were constants that kept me grounded: my family, our dog, books, music, sports, vacations at the beach. Still, I learned that change, and how I dealt with it was a source of stimulation, which took me to a higher plane in deciding how to deal with new situations or people, and it was exciting to run these ‘experiments’ to see how they worked. As you might imagine, there were a lot of failures, especially as I learned to navigate society, that didn’t work out so well, and it was back to the drawing board. I was, however, up for the next challenge that might present itself. 

A new, different point of view can change anything and make it completely original, even though the idea had its origins elsewhere. But not always. Trying to create new things, new situations, for the sake of newness, and nothing else, is really reaching backward, attempting to create a part of a past life that may now have a golden glow to it, but as the saying goes, ‘no matter how often you look at the past, there is nothing new.’ We can miss an old situation, yet not need to be a part of it, as we have moved on to another place, emotionally and psychologically. So what is ‘new’ in our lives? Something recently invented or purchased? Certainly. A novel idea we need to dissect to better understand? Yes. A fact or story we never heard before? Absolutely. ‘New’ can be all of these things. If there is one thing my own life taught me, though, it is that ‘new’ depends on the point of view. Whatever we don’t know in our lives is new, of course, but looking at something ‘new’ as something ‘fresh’ changes how we see it. ‘Fresh’ has the connotation of new, unsullied, untouched; a brand new world to discover, each of us in our own way. Even if something older is seen with a fresh look at what it might mean in our lives now, it becomes new again. This is most evident in the art world, where paintings, sculptures, dances, plays, and stories are created from one specific point of view, revealing things that only its creator could know or conceive, but who’s new view of the subject can touch us in ways no other creator could.

New for the sake of new is not a goal. New to help us to reach a higher plane of knowledge or understanding is the bridge that fords the gap between where we have been and where we might be able to go. That different perspective, that new look, may be the keystone to a brighter future for us all. Seeing that new angle is our task as humans, and one that we must diligently look for until we are able to put the pieces together to see what new messages are there, and what we might learn from this new experience. And in that new world, we will find change for the better.