Like most road Mondays, I had lunch with the usual pack of travelling co-workers on the way to the office. As we often do, we talked about our project, and how our agency can’t be as efficient as private industry can be at doing certain things, because we have to account for regulations that they don’t. In response to this sentiment, one person offered up the following sentiment (paraphrased, ‘cuz I can’t remember the exact words):

Oh well…<deep, theatrical sigh>…they’re passing all kinds of laws now, and things won’t ever again be like what we’re used to.

This person was referring, of course, to the health care reform bill (among federal employees, office politics sometimes merge easily into national politics) . Nods of agreement arose around the table. Seeing the futility of fighting this particular battle*, I remained silent other than a mumbled “and how’s that a bad thing?” that went largely unremarked upon.

The conversation did, however, offer a clear view of a marker of sorts – I’m not sure if it’s generational, cultural, political, or what, but it’s a definite difference between me and the rest of my office travel companions: Just because things are going to be different than the status quo, unlike them, I’m not immediately convinced that’s going to be bad thing.

Change, in a lot of areas, is a good thing; I can’t see how getting a start at fixing something that’s widely accepted as broken and making it work better for more people can’t be. We’re used to all sorts of inconvenient things; why not try to make them not inconvenient any more? Just because “it’s always been that way” doesn’t make “it” immediately right, and doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to do what we can to improve the parts of “it” that we’re in a position to do something about.

I suppose most people would say (at least to themselves) that it’s easier to just put up with the status quo than to take a chance at making it better.

To tie this back to another piece of my life, for the last several weeks, potty training a toddler has been very prominent on my personal agenda. The biggest challenge is to convince the kid that despite the fact that she’s used to soiling their diaper and having somebody periodically come around and replace the soiled diaper with a clean one, using the toilet is a better deal, because even though it’s a little more complicated than what she’s used to in the short term, life’s a lot more pleasant and convenient for everyone when she can walk around without a pantsload of shit.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if a toddler can figure out this lesson, why can’t an adult come to the same conclusion in a slightly different context?

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* – it’s pretty much universally acknowledged, if rarely remarked upon, that I’m one of the workgroup’s token bleeding-hearts; when things veer in the direction of politics, I generally don’t jump in, because I think it’s bad form and unprofessional. Unless, that is, somebody says something blatantly racist, sexist or homophobic. If I have a button, that’s it – push it at your own peril.