When Renee and I married, I inherited a stepson who programs computers for a living. There was a two-way benefit to this: I could learn from Jeff what RAM, CPU fan, and processor speed meant. And, he could learn from me what “high-tech illiterate” meant.
On his first visit, Jeff checked out my system. Once he’d stopped laughing, he suggested I use that old, obsolete computer as a doorstop or a boat anchor. Couldn’t I just donate it to charity, I wondered? No one, he assured me, was that desperate.
If I insisted on keeping it, at least it needed a memory upgrade to handle today’s programs. With an investment of my money and Jeff’s time, the old computer did take on a new life. It didn’t look any different. Same keyboard. Same screen and printer. Same mouse. But changing the computer’s innards changed everything.
Today is not yesterday; how can our works and thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change, indeed, is painful, yet ever needful.
–Thomas Carlyle
On second thought, doesn’t significant change always occur on the inside? Good health programs don’t focus on appearance. They concentrate on stress reduction and cardiovascular improvement. We can change clothes, hairstyles, jobs, cars, and even spouses. Yet, we improve performance only with an internal upgrade.
Cosmetics are no substitute for content. Improving ourselves is like upgrading our computers. It requires a change on the inside.