Great Uncle Fred? My Uncle Bruce makes a lot of mistakes. He never has any money and he does really stupid things sometimes. My Dad said, "He`ll never change". My Mum said, "Yes, he can change. He will." My Dad said, "People never change, that`s just the way it is." Do people change? (Jack, Spring 2008)

Perhaps your question should be, "Do people change for the better?" as that seems to be what you are interested in. Also, I think it is obvious that people can and do change for the worse - often for good reasons, people get drawn into badness until it becomes habitual, part of their selves. A man might steal from his employer, for example, to get his kids a nicer holiday, or get in the habit of lying to his wife, to spare her feelings, or so he says to himself, and gradually he is corrupted. But - change for the better? I think that it is perfectly possible. I think we are all about ten thousand times more marvellous than we think we are - I think there is so much more that the human race has still to offer (and I do not mean technology) - and I think that those who are stuck in bad habits or wrong patterns of thought just need to think harder, or dream harder. The main barriers are dishonesty and the decisions that people make about themselves. That`s partly why grown-ups are often so boring. They have decided who they are, what they are, and they stick rigidly to their versions, which are often perfectly wrong. Kids, who inhabit a universe of possibilities, live closer to the truth. So, yes, people can change but often they just won`t.

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