Life issues: Tomorrow is Another Day

Ways of reacting to change
In Tomorrow is Another Day, Jess arrives in the Mayan village and is shocked at the ritual of sacrificing a daughter in order to make the sun rise. He goes about attempting to persuade Bazal and his people that their belief in the Sun God, Huitzilipochi (what a mouthful!), is false.

Jess is thwarted by Bazal, who is corrupt and benefits from the worship of the Sun God. The people, too, are reluctant to change their ways.

Why are the Mayan people reluctant to change?

Some possible reasons could be:

• They are secure in what they know
• They do not trust an outsider
• They feel like they are taking a risk if they change
• They are scared that the sun will not rise if the sacrifice is stopped
• They are scared of the shame brought on them by the rest of the village if they protest
• They fear a change in routine

We can see that fear plays a large part in reluctance to change.

Two Tiger stands up to Bazal and questions the existence of the Sun God. This is a brave step indeed.

A permanent state of change
The world is in a permanent state of change. New discoveries are being made as we speak and change is occurring at a faster rate than ever before.

Just look at how quickly appliances such as Computers, Cars, Play Stations and DVDs come in and out of date. A new model is out to replace the old one almost instantly!

In fact, if we were to look back on the last 100 years and list the discoveries made and the new ideas put forward, the list would seem to be endless. There can be no doubt that the people of the world have had to cope with enormous change over this time.

Different people react in different ways to situations of change. Can you recognise the following behaviours in people that you know?

1. To embrace change immediately with open arms. They see the newest toy and have to buy it. They latch onto the trendiest saying, the latest idea or fashion.

2. To take time to consider the new idea. They will weigh up the pros and cons before deciding whether the new idea is a good one.

3. To be very reluctant to change. They often can’t see the point in doing things differently and need a lot of motivation to finally change their mind and say "yes"

Which of these applies to you in most situations?

The villagers were definitely 3 – reluctant to change.
Two Tiger was a 2 – he took time to weigh up the pros and cons and made his
decision.

The disadvantage of 1 – quick to change - is that you may make a rash decision, one that you will later regret

The disadvantage of 3 – reluctance - is that you may be left behind and miss out on the benefits of change.

2 seems the most sensible option as you wait and make an informed and considered decision.
It is important to recognise that people do not necessarily fit into the same category all the time. For instance, a person may be reluctant to make technological changes in their household but may change their style of clothes regularly.

Reluctance to change?
Sometimes it can be a good thing to be a bit wary of change. After all, not all change is for the better. Consider whether high rise cities are better than fields of grass. Some people may see it as progress; some may see it as a turn for the worse.

We all can probably all think of someone who shows reluctance to change the way they do something.

• The person who is reluctant to use a computer.
• The person who is reluctant to figure out how to operate the VCR record mechanism.
• The person who always criticises the present and talks endlessly of the "good old days."
• The person who refuses to change the way they do their job because that’s the way they’ve always done it
• The person who is often resistant to a new idea in a conversation

You can probably think of many more examples from your everyday experience.

Why the reluctance?
We saw in the example from "Tomorrow is Another Day" that fear played a big part in the villagers’ resistance to change.

It is usually the same for us, and the people around us. Have you ever felt a reluctance to change?

What fears did you have to face before making the change?

What motivated you to finally say yes to the change? Self esteem and confidence also has a huge impact over whether you are likely to want to change.

Once you start facing up to fears and ‘take the plunge,’ you will get a lot better at it- you may even start to enjoy the challenge.

"Observe always that everything is the result of a change"
Marcus Aurelius (121-180)