The Inevitable

Change in inevitable. Our decisions each and every day are influenced by the ever changing world around us. Whether it is the weather that changes what time I wake up for class, or the fact my roommates drank the rest of the milk and I now have to resort to a Pop Tart for breakfast, our ability to adapt to the changes surrounding us is what keeps us alive. Although the changes of breakfast food and routes to class are pretty easy to overcome, changing major historical traditions might take a little more getting used to.

Amenhotep the 4^th started the religious revolution in Egypt during the 18^th Dynasty. He tried to shift his culture from Egypt’s traditional polytheistic (multiple gods) structure to a monotheistic (one god) system. Can you imagine? Waking up one morning and having something change so drastically and not really having any other choice but to conform?

With this new system, his people could no longer reference let alone worship other gods. Although the punishments are unknown, defying the Pharaoh probably wouldn't be the best idea. Upon Akhenaten’s death there was a gradual change back to their original belief system.

Additional changes that Amenhotep the 4^th made was to his own name. In an effort to gain more support from his people he changed his name to 'Akhenaten' which translates to “one who is beneficial to the Ottoman.” Sounding familiar yet? I seem to picture a specific red hat in my mind but maybe that is just me. *sips tea*

When I first watched this portion of the video all I could think about is how difficult it would be to wake up one day and realizing the world that you knew was now drastically different. Pulling from my experiences studying abroad last semester it instantly clicked, that this exact situation happened not too long ago.

On August 12th, 1961 a wall dividing East and West Berlin was constructed overnight. Let that sink in for just a second…this was done literally overnight. You could no longer see your friends, loved ones, or travel to your job based solely on what side of the street you lived on. Talk about a drastic change of pace for your life.

The finished wall was 66 miles of concrete that was nearly 4 meters high. All of this was done to stop the influence of certain government ideology, also known as communism. The struggle to adapt to this change cost people their life. Nearly 200 people died trying to cross or penetrate the wall that stood between them and what once was normality.

Just as it arose overnight, at 10:45 PM on November 9th, 1989 the wall fell with thousands of Germans being reunited with family friends. As I had the fortunate opportunity to visit the wall last semester I walked away with a newfound understanding of what peace and freedom truly look like. I think it all goes back to diversity; as I define it as the acknowledgement and the acceptance of one another for differences both seen and unseen.

Akhenaten was someone who could use positional power to force others to think the way he did. This same positional authority existed in 1960 Berlin and I think in a lot of ways it still exists in 2018 across the world.

Dearden, Lizzie. “Berlin Wall: What You Need to Know about the Barrier That Divided East and West.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 8 Nov. 2014, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/berlin-wall-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-barrier-that-divided-east-and-west-9847347.html.