It’s often said that the only certainty in life is change.  The future often possesses an ominous quality because we know things will change and not all of those changes will be good.  The past, though, always looks better because the element of uncertainty has been removed.

The prospect of change can be frightening.  I’m not the only person worried about the changes to our economy — and our lives — if the drought continues.  And a lot of us are probably worrying about the changes we’ll see as a result of the November election, though members of different parties have very different worries.

Scientists are examining why liberals and conservatives see things so differently, and some clues have emerged.  Both personality types have comparative strengths and weaknesses, and some of the difference in the way conservatives and liberals think is reflected in the very terms by which they are known.  Conservatives by definition resist change, while liberals, or “progressives” as they are sometimes called, embrace it.

When my son William was about 8 he asked me what liberals and conservatives were.  I hadn’t been expecting that, and wasn’t sure how to explain it to one so young.  I ended up saying that the average conservative is somebody who has so much trouble dealing with life that he can’t imagine it changing.  The average liberal, on the other hand, is someone who has so much trouble dealing with life that he can’t imagine it not changing.

And studies seem to back me up.  Research has shown conservatives to be more easily frightened than liberals.  Conservatives also have more difficulty adapting to new situations.  Thus conservatives have a greater fear of change and find security in “staying the course.”  Many conservatives, burdened with the challenges of earning a living and raising a family, fear change will make things worse – thus they struggle to maintain the status quo, even when the status quo is one of struggle.

Liberals, on the other hand, are less inclined to fear change.  Thus many liberals struggling to earn a living and raise a family seek change in the hopes that it will lessen their struggles and lead to growth.

The pioneers were, like the founding fathers before them, progressives willing to take risks to make life better.  Western social justice and our high standard of living are the result of centuries of such efforts.

Yet conservatives have contributed to our advancement as well, for example, by balancing liberal idealism with their greater concern for what can go wrong.  Traditionally, conservative strengths have compensated for liberal weaknesses and vice versa like partners in a successful marriage – and until recently this relationship has more or less worked.

Today our nation is facing some of the greatest challenges since the Great Depression and World War II, and many of these problems have been made much worse by the increasing divide between progressive and conservative views.  Many conservatives apparently believe things like child labor laws, safe food, pensions for the elderly, civil rights and now universal healthcare have made life worse rather than better, and are seeking to return to a nineteenth century approach to government.  Liberals, on the other hand, believe that economically we’ve already returned to the age of the robber barons and that we need to reimpliment effective regulations and an equitable tax code.

So long as half our electorate is dedicated to destroying what the other half has accomplished, it’s hard not to worry about the changes ahead no matter who wins the November election…

I felt an earthquake once.  It was brief and weak by earthquake standards, but felt to me like someone had dropped a mountain.  I can only imagine what the large earthquake that hit Japan last week was like.

But my friend Joe Curiale doesn’t have to imagine – he is currently living in Tokyo.  As soon as he could after the quake, he sent me this:

“It’s hard to explain the experience, what to say.

“I’ve experienced many earthquakes, including the Northridge quake, but yesterday I though that life was over. I really thought it was very possible that I wouldn’t survive it.

“I feel small quakes here regularly so I was not alarmed when it started.  But it just kept getting worse! Usually earthquakes last a few seconds to a minute.  But this just kept growing with in intensity!  Finally I ran down the stairs and out of the house. It’s an old Japanese house that’s like a box of sticks, so I worried it would collapse. I saw this with my own eyes in the Kobe earthquake. 

“When I got outside I was shocked to see EVERYTHING shaking. There was a particularly terrible moment when I had to resign to the fact that there was no way to escape, nowhere to hide from what was happening. Where I’m living is densely populated on small streets; I saw the tangle of power lines swinging and I was concerned about getting electrocuted. The only place I could find was an empty parking space next to two cars that were rocking back and forth, but I was completely exposed.  I will never forget an old Japanese woman who froze, standing next to her house.  I was hoping that she would tell me, “It’s no problem” because she is used to this.  But when I asked her in Japanese if she was OK, she meekly replied, “I’m afraid”.  I thought, “Great!”

“It was impossible to stand up straight because the ground was undulating in waves right under my feet! It was like in a movie!  At that moment, I was afraid the earth would open, the reason being that this earthquake was not only violent, it was LONG and continuing in intensity.  I really thought my life was over.  At that moment I remember thinking many things that society puts importance on are meaningless.

 “This scenario repeated again and again. I am on unstable land since it is reclaimed land! Where I’m sitting was once Tokyo Bay! ALL DAY, including NOW, the house rocked in a wave. It’s bitter cold outside, so having had to spend outside alone for quite a while yesterday was tough.

“20,000 people slept at Tokyo Station last night and the train is still not working.

“Even before the earthquake, I knew the strong potential for Japan to be a huge disaster waiting to happen. It’s not over. How fragile life is…”

On Sunday Joe sent an update:

“Things are not good here.  Being foreigners, we did not get the latest developments until it was too late.  The government is going to start cutting power, water and gas in the morning, so people raided the supermarkets.  By the time we got there, there was no bottled water to be had.  Things such as tuna and Cup-O-Noodle were sold out.  The shelves were bare.  Under the circumstances I’m feeling quite vulnerable.   I don’t think we are out of the woods yet.  We may have no power for 6-9 hours every day.”