It is easy to underestimate how much things can change in a few years.
An example I am looking at this week: the Toto tour being planned for the summer of 2011. This is a band that less than three years ago was said to be completely through, and for reasons that no one could argue with. But then there were benefit shows this year, and now, with a 68-word announcement, the band is heading out on the road again.
It might seem like a stunning reversal until you consider how much time went by for the people involved. A year, or two, is a short time only if you cast yourself in the role of a distant observer. When what happens depends in part on your own decisions and actions, or when you are close enough to see a small part of the action, then it becomes obvious that even one year is a period of time that encompasses incomprehensible amounts of uncertainty and potential.
It’s something to remember if you make a new year’s resolution. It isn’t much help to make several small resolutions that fit squarely within your current view of your life. Instead, focus on one change you can make that will take you outside your current situation into something new and different.
