OPINION: Finally a change to believe in

I like summer, mostly for the fishing and the long days, but this has been a brutal summer — unusually hot, mostly dry, laced with political campaigns, excessive numbers of mosquitos and yellow jackets, and the continued economic doldrums. The promise of warm (but not hot) clear days, cool nights and turning leaves seems to offer hope that other change — good change – can happen. Even a cynic like me feels some optimism as Mother Nature ends one season that has overstayed its welcome and begins another.

While I was not here when the glaciers covered North America, I am at an age where occasionally I fail to view change with the appropriate amount of optimism. My cell phone is not “smart,” my TV neither wide-screen nor digital and plain coffee, black, remains preferable to a 350-calorie concoction from Starbucks. I’m generally skeptical that yet another upgrade in my computer operating system will make work easier. I just can’t envision a change in presidents, change in control of Congress, or change in the carrier of my health insurance without worrying that the change might be for the worse.

If only I could embrace change in general like I do change of the seasons. I look forward to fall, in spite of my severe allergy to ragweed, the millions of leaves to be raked and the Braves’ late season collapses, yet I fear ownership of a next-generation smart TV because I’ll never figure out how the remote control works. I will welcome winter for the opportunity to use my fireplace and because my cats finally quit shedding, but neglect my Facebook page because I see no need to be informed when your grandchild gets an A on a book report and because I don’t want to take the trouble to upgrade to the new page format.

I take a glass-half-full view of seasonal change, but it’s glass-half-empty toward inevitable changes of daily living. It could be worse — loathing the idea of fall because of the Falcons’ prospects or hating spring because it brings out the poison ivy — but I’d love to be optimistic about the General Assembly passing meaningful ethics legislation, the development of a computer that can drive my car for me, or President Romney’s ability to bring America out of recession.

Sorry, I can’t do it. But at least I’m still optimistic about fall.

Mark Beardsley is the editor of The Commerce News. He lives in Commerce.