Comments on: Saltatory Change

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:07:12 +0000

Welcome to Life in Pencil, Patty! Thanks for your comment. It seems like the general consensus on this is one is that saltatory change just isn’t as satisfying as we grow older. Not that we’re not capable of it — we just don’t feel as much of a need.

By: Patty - Why Not Start Now?

Patty - Why Not Start Now? — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:17:53 +0000

Hi Elizabeth – Great blog you have here. I’m a first timer and came over based on a recommendation Nicki left on my blog. You know, I think as we age maybe we don’t do as much saltatory change because we’re wiser. I did a lot of leaping in earlier days, and while I don’t regret it, it’s not as fun anymore. Now, I want to ease into my transitions. Right now I’m gearing up for a move in a year or so, and I actually have been living p.t. in the new town to make sure it’s what I really want. I NEVER would have done that in my twenties; in fact I sold everything I owned and moved to NYC at 24. But now I like experimenting, pondering, reflecting. I guess the danger there is pondering too long, and then the change never happens. Thanks for the thoughtful post.

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:36:42 +0000

Glad to have the almost-50 perspective on this one, Nicki!

By: Nicki

Nicki — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:55:09 +0000

Looking at my life from an almost 50 POV, I say yes! Saltatory change is always available, always there. You do, as you get older, have more people to consider but on a personal basis, it is always there.

I have a running list of books and just added this one to the list.

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:32:50 +0000

You’re right, Anne. That IS depressing. But a marvelous quote that captures one of the toughest things we have to face in changing and growing older: closing doors.

By: Gale

Gale — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:57:44 +0000

Much like Janzen’s college students, I think I carried around that optimism at one time. But I’m a little sad to say that I probably don’t today. Perhaps this is to justify everything I’ve done in my adult life. That is, if I could walk away from it and all it stands for, then have the past 10 years been a total waste? But also, I don’t believe that they have been a total waste and think that, for me at least, saltatory change would be a mistake.

By: Anne S.

Anne S. — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:50:53 +0000

This post reminds me of a much more depressing take on the same issue from David Foster Wallace:

“I am now 33 years old, and it feels like much time has passed and is passing faster every day. Day to day I have to make all sorts of choices about what is good and important and fun, and then I have to live with the forfeiture of all the other options those choices foreclose. And I’m starting now to see how as time gains momentum my choices will narrow and their foreclosures multiply exponentially until I arrive at some point on some branch of all life’s sumptuous branching complexity at which I am finally locked in and stuck on one path and time speeds me through stages of stasis and atrophy and decay until I go down for the third time, all struggle for naught, drowned by time. It is dreadful. But since it’s my own choices that’ll lock me in, it seems unavoidable – if I want to be any kind of grownup, I have to make choices and regret foreclosures and try to live with them.” – David Foster Wallace

What strikes me about this (besides how sad it is, especially in light of his suicide), is the part about being a grown up. The saltatory changes definitely get harder as our grown up responsibilities stack up. Sure, it’s always possible to make a drastic change, but once those changes have an impact on other people we have to consider them more carefully.

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:19:14 +0000

Great! Let me know what you think of the book!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:45:48 +0000

I agree with Jan. I’m whisking off to my library website now to reserve this book online (too cheap to actually buy it, sorry). Thanks for the recommendation on the book, and for the plug on the mommy blog voting!

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:00:38 +0000

Elizabeth — The book sounds so intriguing that I’m going to go read it…before I finish reading your blog. Sorry! Then, I’ll come back and read your blog and try to make a halfway intelligent comment!! Thanks so much for writing this today.