By Oh Young-jin
Assistant Managing Editor

I recently moved to the Business Desk due to a company reshuffle.

It is not the first time that I have switched positions but, whenever there has been a big change in my life, and not just in my career, I have often written about my take on ``change.'' I want to maintain that tradition of mine in today's column but this time I have tried to enlist the help of leaders of the present and the past as well as use lyrics of one or two pop songs.

Look it up in a dictionary and you will find the word, ``change,'' has many meanings.

Interestingly, it even has two opposing meanings. In one entry, the dictionary defined it as giving a completely different appearance or form to something or someone, while another entry says it means giving or receiving something in equivalent in terms of value.

These conflicting definitions allow a great deal of freedom when the word is used in writing or speaking but also signifies the depth of the word, when philosophically or practically applied to daily life or a thought process. Gibberish! A kinder explanation of my point is that, when you change, it is often, as in science, an outside force that triggers it. If there is no outside challenge, there will be no change in you or so you may think. But that may not always be true, if you think that humans are a ``thinking reed,'' as Blaise Pascal said.

I will spare you from anymore of my confusing train of thought and walk you through what others ― those I think are better than me ― have to say about change.

First, Confucius says, ``They must often change who would be constant in happiness and wisdom.''

It is a matter of course that the ancient Chinese thinker left a behemoth of wisdom through his disciples so, as with other great thinkers, it would be unfair to cherry-pick some of his quotes from the Confucian Analects and make them as if they represented him. It would be a gross misrepresentation but I am sure that China's most revered thinker would be glad, if he knew that his words still give comfort 2,500 years after his death.

My take is that this quote has a lot to do with the age of great conflict in which he lived. In Chinese history, Confucius lived in the Spring and Autumn Period transitioning to the Period of Warring States. He wanted to practice his teachings of ethics and justice as statecraft, as counsel to kings, but he was only marginally successful, forcing him to travel from one state to another in search of the right master.

Thus, I think that this Confucian quote reflected the zeitgeist of his time ― change or perish.

In contrast, there is Taylor Swift's Change, a 2008 single by the adolescent country pop singer with Grammy recognition.

Her "Change" goes ``We've been outnumbered, raided and now cornered. It's hard to fight when the fight isn't fair … You can walk away, say we don't need this. But there's something in your eyes say we can beat this, cause these things will change…''

Don't take Swift's song lightly because, to the right person at the right moment, the right song can be as invigorating as the best sermon of Joel Austin. In other words, life offers as much as you can get.

Talk about change cannot be completed without including Barack Obama.

During his early campaign trail, Obama gave a series of speeches, one of them being his Jan. 8 speech in Georgia. He spoke, ``I will never forget that the only reason I'm standing here today is because somebody, somewhere stood up for me when it was risky. Stood up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn't popular. And because that somebody stood up, a few more stood up. And then a few thousand stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world.''

As we all know, Obama's message of hope and change caused something that was seemingly unthinkable ― the first black man to become the leader of the country that was founded on the blood, toil and tears of negro slaves ― a revolution that took 240 years to get started and is still in progress.

Desperation often leads to change. Job, the biblical figure, said, ``If a man dies, will he live again?''

Job's faith was pushed to the limits in a wager between God and Lucifer. Job had his moments of doubt but prevailed. I think that his story is a culmination of the Gospels together with dialogues between David and God in Psalms but his story signifies two things in mundane terms. First, it shows that change often comes against or irrespective of one's will and the second is that those who face travails can overcome them. But there is only one Job for the millions of Judas (What a time difference!).

But the most mundane explanation of change comes with the famous quote of John M. Keynes, the British economist that I think is one of the root causes of today's miseries. ``The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run, we are all dead.''

What I don't like about Keynes is profound but I find this particular quote on the borderline of being hideous because it deprived people of long-term perspectives, making them short-sighted and overly responsive in search of prompt answers to moment-to-moment changes. Still, the irony is that I, as most sound-minded people, find this quote hard to resist. That is also the catch, on my view on change.