The following is an assignment I fulfilled for a comparative literature class, as a response to Montaigne's essays. In most of his essays, he seemed to start with simple subjects, and then go on to apply them in a deep way to his own life. There are some, however, that deal with deep subjects throughout. This essay was a last minute product of much procrastination, and sprung forth in about 20 minutes.
It
is an innermost desire for many to grow and become better than they now
perceive themselves to be. To sit by and allow life to happen can cause one to
feel that he is always victim to his circumstances, and that he is never
acting, but only being acted upon. He begins to feel that he cannot change,
even while the world around him is constantly in motion. These are negative
feelings; naturally, we move to avoid them.
However,
change is uncomfortable. As much as it hurts to sit, it is easy, because it is
familiar. So it is with all habits or even addictions; that, while they
ultimately decrease our feelings of value and love, they are nonetheless
comfortable.
When
the individual has decided that he can no longer remain in his present state,
and moves despite the discomfort of it, he begins the task of change. Change,
as we know, is not always easy. There is a paradox, which is not often spoken
of in scripture or elsewhere, but which is a plague to many, particularly to
those who are over-zealous for change. The paradox is this: that to change
requires the identification of one aspect of one’s self that must be done away
with; and to effectively do away with a well-set-in characteristic, one must
consistently focus on it and work at it until it is removed. Yet in the process
of focusing on such a characteristic, one serves also to set it in, for it
seems universally true that those things which we think about most become part
of us.
