Embracing Change

The original title for this blog post was “I Give Up,” but when I mentioned that to my significant other, John, he nixed it. He said I’m a positive person who has overcome adversity and embraces change, totally shaming me into taking a different slant on my topic. Until then, I was sounding like quite the curmudgeon in this post. Now, I feel much lighter. At least, I’m trying to feel more like the change-embracing woman John believes me to be.

The first thing I planned to gripe about was grammatical abominations that have become commonplace:

•“Me and Joe went to the movies.”
•Omitting the comma before the conjunction that introduces an independent clause. (Do I own the last copy of Strunk and White?)
•Apostrophes used in plural words. As in “Apostrophe’s used in plural word’s.”
The other day, I heard the BBC World News commentator sign off with “Good day, from me and BBC,” and I decided to give up. Whoops. I mean, to embrace change. As John pointed out to me, English is a dynamic language. Accepting the changes will be so freeing! I’ll let you know how I make out.

Then I planned to discuss my war against the sale of used books. I never did mind the mom-and-pop store on the corner selling my books used, but when gigantic Amazon began pushing used books on the same page as the new books–on the same day those new books were released–I joined my fellow writers in fighting back. It’s a losing battle, and while I rue the loss of income to myself and other authors, I’ve stopped fighting it. Nevertheless, I can’t help but whisper to you, “Do you know where that book has been?”

E-books. “I will never read an e-book.” I’m sure I said that as recently as last year, proclaiming, “I need the feel of paper in my hands.” I now own an e-reader and I love it, but not without guilt. Authors make less money on e-books, and I can’t bear to think about what this shift in the way we read will mean to my beloved booksellers. But the times they are a-changin’, and I hope we can all find ways not only to endure what’s happening in the book world, but to actually thrive in spite of it. I have no idea how, but the change-embracing Diane is also an optimist!

Then we have social media. Facebook. Goodreads. Twitter. MySpace. I resisted, wondering what was wrong with all those needy people who befriended strangers. Now, though, I’ve radically embraced this change. Social media rocks. What a fabulous way to keep in touch, not only with my “real” friends and family, but my readers as well.

So how about you? What changes are you resisting? Shall we embrace them together?