Isn't that amazing. They were just like us.

For Presidents' Day I re-visited General Washington's beautiful home, Mount Vernon. I left with an overpowering, completely incongruous, and totally absurd, non-historic thought. In the face of the grand sweep of history, with untold mysteries and questions to ponder, I wondered -- well, honestly -- I wondered how he kept the place warm.

I live in an old house -- not two hundred plus years old, just a young sixty plus years old -- and I know a little bit about how drafty windows stand up to wintry howls. I recently also had the eighteenth century experience of having only a fireplace for heat on some very cold winter days and nights. Given this, I suppose that there was some quirky logic to my wonderings.

Thinking about the heat let me wander around in my mind musing about how, in general, we ever do get from how it was to how it is.

Of course, the answer is change.

I don't like change. And, oddly enough, I love change. I think most of us are like that.

The problem with change is that no one knows for sure whether they will like it or not when it occurs. Another problem with change is that you cannot always be the one controlling the change, or the timing, or the effect. But, I think that the ultimate problem with change is that it is inevitable, as is our instinct to both embrace it and reject it.

General Washington lived at Mount Vernon for 45 years. History records that he spent most of that time changing it. He wrote longingly of his great desire to come home to the tranquility of Mount Vernon. Yet, he was always risking his tranquility by changing Mount Vernon to make it better. He didn't know for certain that it would turn out better, but he changed it anyway.

I think the change to DC Web Women will make the organization better.

On reflection, I think that the change was inevitable, as will be our instinct to both embrace it and reject it.

I like the new name. But, to be honest, I was never comfortable with any variation of girl. I know that for me it is a generation issue. I respect your use of it and your pride in it. However, I confess that I will be relieved not to have to constantly explain to my friends and business associates that I am not writing a column for a porn site.

I like the new web site very much. Talk about bold women! No matter what you might not like, or find that could be improved, you have to admire women who are willing to take risks to make something better. They put their talent and skill and ego on the line before 1500 expert, savvy, and vocal critics. I salute them for that alone.

I admire the courage of your leadership. Whether you understand their decision or not, you know that you have a managing group with the integrity to do what they think is right, and the spunk to implement it. They bring pride and action to your ideals and goals.

The change to DC Web Women, like General Washington's changes, will certainly disrupt tranquility. But, even without knowing how it will turn out, I believe it is a change worth making.

True enough, change can be magnificent or malevolent. Embracing change can be risky business. As I said, you cannot always be the one controlling the change, or the timing, or the effect. And no one can really know how it will turn out until it is history.

I remember when the Internet was a strange, alien, secret society I deemed the purview of loonies. Now I couldn't live without it and I presume to give advice to the women who rule it. I could not have imagined that it would turn out like this when I first logged on.

In this unfocused ramble around in my head I still don't know how General Washington kept his place warm. I suspect that he didn't. But, in the wondering I did learn something far more important. I came to understand why he was driven to risk changing it, despite his longing for its tranquility.

General Washington understood that change has always been the way to make something you love even better.

"Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them."

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 36.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 121-180 A. D.

Copyright © 1998, 1999 by D.E. Summerville. All rights reserved.

The advice and suggestions in the Women in Business column are solely those of the author. DC Web Women assumes no responsibility for its content.

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