"[Almost] Nothing in Life is Static"

The attached photo, taken a few days ago, captured a moment in time: A quarter moon positioned between curtains of trees, rising over Mud River Swamp in Essex, CT. But nothing stood still. The moon floated higher in the sky, the clouds moved north, and the wind rustled the leaves.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“[Almost] Nothing in Life is Static”

September 6, 2025

 

“The only constant is change.”

                                                                           Attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c.500 BCE)               

                                                                           who believed that the universe is in a continuous state of

                                                                           movement and transformation.

 

That nature is not static is an acknowledged truth– not the universe, climate, plants, animals, nor the mass that comprises the Earth. They are all in a continuing state of flux, adapting to changing conditions. Few things in our lives – apart from history, art, our pasts and a moral code – are static, not politics, jobs, nor our relationships, which require care and attention. Perfection may be sought but is never discovered: Consider Pone de León’s search for the ‘Fountain of Youth,’ or Dorian Gray’s desire for eternal youth.

 

If science teaches us anything about the world around us, it is that evolution allows species to adapt to changing environments. All living matter is born, lives and dies. Inanimate objects are subject to erosion, volcanic activity, etc. It is why, in matters like the environment, the word “conserves” rather than “preserves” more accurately conveys what environmentalists seek. The former implies responsible behavior to protect something from harm or destruction; the latter suggests maintaining the status quo, which is alien to natural changes.  

 

To deal with this persistently fluid world, man created religion to help understand the inexplicable; fostered customs and traditions, like marriage, partnerships and codes of conduct to bring structure and stability; formed clubs and societies to satisfy a need for companionship; built cities to ease commerce, and erected governments and made laws to bring order to what would otherwise be anarchial lives.

 

I have been reading Paul Andrew Hutton’s monumental history of the American west, The Undiscovered Country. The book is instructional on many levels, but an aspect that struck me was the nomadic life of most North American Indians, in the18^th and 19^thcenturies, as hunting, fishing and trapping sustained them. The western movement of European settlers threatened their hunting grounds, but so did other Indian tribes, and alliances with European powers. Their mobile lives stood in contrast to the more staid civilizations built by Aztecs in what is now Mexico and Incas along the Andean Mountains. It makes one ponder: Were those who built cities looking for stability in a peripatetic world? Or were leaders simply seeking power and wealth? Why were cities and civilizations created two to four thousand years ago in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and later ones in Rome and Greece, while Celtics and Germanics roamed central Europe, and myriad tribes persisted as hunters and gatherers in Africa, the Americas and parts of Asia? Why?

 

Survival and economic growth (or the need for room to grow) explain the competition for resources between opposing tribes, peoples and nations, making understandable why they fought, perhaps explaining  why killings and enslavement were common. As Darwin demonstrated, survival went to the fittest. Today, the world faces two distinctive alternatives – the authoritarianism of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, or the liberal world order of Western nations, led by the United States, Europe, Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan. Which will attract the uncommitted?

 

We all strive for security and stability, yet change is (or should be) a natural aspect of democracies. Over the past 80 years, Republicans and Democrats have equally divided time in the White House, a healthy division. Yet, the opposite is true when it comes to big cities and state Congressional delegations. Of the eleven cities in the U.S. with over a million people only one (Dallas) has a Republican mayor. A second (Honolulu) has an Independent as mayor. The rest have Democrat mayors – not positive for democracy. And, in the current Congress, 40% of the states have single party delegations – twelve Republican-only states and eight Democrat-only states, an unhealthy division.

 

There are, however, things that do not change. Works of art, unless vandalized or censored: the music of Beethoven, the plays of Shakespeare, the paintings of Monet, the statues of Michelangelo, the poetry of Whitman. The past can be reinterpreted, but cannot be changed. But most important – what does not change are the principle of right and wrong, the presence of good and evil, and those self-evident, “unalienable truths” of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – gifts endowed by our Creator – and embedded in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. 

 

Nevertheless, in most aspects of our physical lives, change is a force for good. Think of improvements in health, transportation, foods, and communication. Standards of living have improved immensely over the past centuries. While there has been a slight decline in the percent of the world’s population living in democracies over the past few years, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, the numbers are up substantially over the past 100 years. Just as we should celebrate those things that do not change, we should applaud those that do.

 

While I am not a fatalist – a belief that our futures are foretold – I recognize that much of what happens is beyond our control – deadly diseases, earthquakes, reckless drivers, hurricanes, terrorists. I also know we have choices, and that it is necessary to adapt to a changing environment and an unknowable future.