"The bigger the change we hope for..."

I am reading a book right now called Culture Making with a group of about thirty-five other faculty and staff members on campus, and so far, I've really enjoyed the beginning of the book. But tonight, while reading through chapter three, I had to stop, reread, star, underline. The author was describing rates of change in culture. He argued that there are different layers of culture that change and impact culture at different rates of speed and significance. For instance, fashion is a part of culture but beyond magazine archives fashion causes no real significant impact. There's no longevity. One day, dark colors and wide flowy pants are the hotest items, and the next, skinny jeans and vibrant florals are in. One fashion statement does not build on a previous to create another. They just come and go as the breeze blows. On the other end of the spectrum, things like government systems provide for some of the slowest but arguably most significant changes to culture and society.

And then I came across the quote that had me starring and underlining and rereading and such: "The bigger the change we hope for, the longer we must be willing to invest, work, and wait for it." For some reason, this struck me as if it was a totally new concept. 

I am working awfully hard to construct new cultural ideas in a campus that seems to so desperately need them. I spend my days correcting foul language, trying to tame wild and unpredictable attitudes about people and services, counseling students through appropriate choices in lifestyle... I expend immeasurable efforts drafting documents, proposals, summary reports, arguments, rallying cries... All of this in an attempt to somehow make the campus a better place to live, to learn, to work, to serve. And I get so darn impatient! I find myself eternally frustrated when asked for yet another revision, or another cyclical conversation, or the many deja vu moments with students repeating myself like a crazed broken record. 

But the change I'm hoping for is big. It's not just a change in a student or two; it's how students live. It's not just trying to make programs better; it's using programs to change lives. All of the work is to make campus somehow better, somehow different from the rest of the world so that the people that leave this place go into the world and make the world somehow better. That's a big change, a big hope. Why would I think it would happen overnight? Why would I be frustrated with small amounts of change, progress, improvement? 

Revolutions and revivals are exciting bursts of activity that make marks in history books for having existed, but they are either not the stand-alone events they appear to be or they are not really all that significant in the long-run. These moments are just the moment that the light switch is flipped and the lights come on. But they usually fail to take into account the countless hours spent wiring the house and checking the circuits that needed to take place for that switch to be flipped. So, I suppose, right now, I need to be okay, or maybe even excited, being the electrician wiring the house knowing that one day the lights will come on. 

The author drove home the point by saying, "Nothing that matters, no matter how sudden, does not have a long history and take part in a long future." (I know, English loving friends, a lot of double negatives going on there...but think about it, would you?) Things that matter come from somewhere and impact something. They can't not.