About Change

Our Bishop, Mary Ann Swenson, requested that folks respond to her blog requesting thoughts on "change." Here are mine:

Today, we walked down Hollywood Blvd with my 8-year-old son. We were showing him the stars' names. I don't think very many young people would know most of the names we walked by, and even the symbols don't really make sense anymore.

For instance, those who got their stars for television have a little square with antennae above it; televisions now tend to be rectangular and have a cable in the back.

The stars' symbol for movies is in the shape of an old movie camera; there's a kind of Mickey Mouse Ear shape at the top of the camera, depicting the place where the film went from reel to reel. Nowadays, movie cameras are mostly digital.

Recording stars have a symbol that is the size and shape of a CD; only the tone arm (remember tone arms?) indicate that it's a small depiction of a vinyl record. Even CD's are quickly becoming a thing of the past; everyone is moving to MP3 players, like ipods or even cell phones.

Radio stars are remembered with a microphone; that symbol still works, but what about internet? How will the stars of YouTube (the ones who last more than a few minutes) be remembered on Hollywood Blvd.? And, will Hollywood Blvd be remembered on YouTube?

Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood, died last week at age 90 after a long, full life. My 8 year old has no idea who he was, and is certainly not concerned about his passing. You know, Woody was equally blase about Fred Astaire.

However, while we were at Grauman's Chinese Theater (where Myrna Loy's foot and hand prints left my son unimpressed, to say the least), we came upon the foot and hand prints of Jackie Cooper, made (I think) in 1935 when Jackie Cooper was aged 8. Woody discovered that his own hands and feet fit perfectly into the concrete imprints made just about 72 years ago.

Woody could imagine a boy who was something like him, who grew up, grew old, and finally died. Finally, there was something he could relate to.

I don't know if Johnny Grant or the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce thought about updating the symbols on the Walk of Fame. I don't know if they've considered adding new symbols to reflect the changes in entertainment technology now or in the future. The symbols they've used just don't work now. That era is past, and Hollywood Blvd is a relic.

Folks who think that their methods must be memorialized (as opposed to their stories, their humanity) and who work hard to keep those methods in place, will simply be outpaced.

Times have changed; Hollywood's past is irrelevant to my son. It just doesn't translate, even though it was once great. However, he was interested in seeing if his footprints matched the boy actor from all those years ago.

It's our humanity that survives, not our styles nor even our symbols. That's what I'm thinking about change.