McCOMB - It has been said that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Or, is it that the more things stay the same the more they change?
Whichever, if either, is correct, this much is for sure. Things do change, for better or for worse, and it is impossible to be totally accurate in predicting the changes.
The older one gets the less confident he becomes in predicting the future.
Dr. Charles Lee, president of Mississippi State University, alluded to that principle as he spoke to the annual membership meeting of the Southwest Mississippi Forestry Association at McComb's First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.
Thirty years ago, Dr. Lee was teaching a forestry class in a college in Arkansas. One of his students was Steve Prestridge, an employee of Georgia-Pacific, who presided as president over this week's Forestry Association meeting, which drew a large crowd of people from Amite, Pike and Wilkinson counties.
Dr. Lee noted that back when he was teaching Prestridge and encouraging landowners to plant every acre they could in trees, he could not foresee the changes in the world that have since transpired - changes that have caused downturns in the timber industry as more wood products are being imported.
These days, Dr. Lee says, he is less inclined to make sure-fire predictions.
Think back 30 years, if you're old enough, and you can appreciate what Dr. Lee was saying.
Who would have guessed, back in 1974, that much of the furniture in American stores would be coming from China?
Or that the Soviet Union would be dissolved and we'd be trading with Russia, in a way competing with them in the timber business?
Or, on a non-timber related subject, who would have predicted in 1974 that Mississippi would be the legal gambling mecca that it is today? Certainly not I.
This isn't to suggest that every prediction you hear is wrong. In fact, some are correct.
Even weather forecasters get it right more often than they are wrong, but as we all know they aren't 100 percent.
So, if you worry about some of the predictions you hear these days, be it about politics, morality or whatever concerns you, recall the advice of Jesus Christ as recorded in the sixth chapter of Matthew: "… do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble."
Remember, too, that most things, including economics, politics and even sports are cyclical.
As sure as the stock market or the timber market goes down, it will eventually go back up and vice versa.
Let one political faction stay in power too long and they'll be replaced by another.
Last year's Super Bowl winner didn't even make the playoffs this past season. Now, like last year, some are predicting this year's winner will repeat as champion next year. Don't bet the tree farm on it.
Things change. It's just risky trying to predict when it's all going to happen.
And as for things staying the same, consider this: Back 125 years ago, when Mississippi State was established as Mississippi A&M, the first president was Steven Lee.
Their first names are different now, and they may not be kin. But notice the last name of the current president - Lee.
