My Paradigm Shift in Cuenca, Ecuador as an Expat -- a Retirement Transformation, a Metamorphisis. -- Finding a New Hat!

 Did you know that Panama Hats really come from Ecuador?

I needed to turn my life around (almost entirely), and I am getting there day by day as a retired expat baby boomer living in Cuenca, Ecuador. It has been a series of sharp turns in what I think and what I do, and the entire event might be loosely described as a paradigm shift, to borrow from my college science classes.

Maybe I am just looking for a new hat to wear...
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But back to this idea of a paradigm shift.

Back in the 1960s, my professors used this term to describe what scientists are sometimes forced to do when facing a number of competing unique and immeasurable solutions to a problem that has already been “solved” (at least by science).

The scientist must swallow pride and be brave enough to take another square look at all of the information she has been avoiding, and ultimately allow much of it into her small world to be studied and then accepted before issuing any further scientific edicts about this topic.

Once this paradigm shift is completed, more unique ideas are accepted as legitimate and become part of the science world to be used as science progresses, and gradually this change of thought brings dramatic change to a culture and even to the entire planet.

In 1962, Thomas Kuhn, an American physicist, historian, and science philosopher, wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolution, coming up with this revolutionary and controversial idea, arguing that scientific advancement is not evolutionary, but rather is a "series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions", and in those revolutions "one conceptual world view is replaced by another".

Kuhn knew that change does not just happen, but must be driven by something – a person or event that we call, in business and in science, an agent of change.

Think of those brave change agents who fought the belief that the earth was at the center of the universe. Because of their insistence, the prevailing truth was ultimately tossed out the window, resulting in a paradigm-shift that put our planet in its proper place, with the sun in the center. The dramatic result of this shift moved science from Newtonian physics to Relativity and Quantum Physics.

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See my retirement photos on Pinterest
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Or consider the printing press and how the printing of books in large volume gradually changed cultures and had a direct affect on the scientific revolution. Johann Gutenberg's invention in the 1440's of movable type was an agent of change. Books became more available, smaller and easier to handle and less expensive than scrolls. Far more people were able to access the scriptures and attitudes began to change as people were no longer under the dictates of the church, people luck Martin Luther.

Today’s change agents are driving paradigm shifts that are all around us. 

Just think of how the computer and the Internet have changed our personal and business lives, resulting in a paradigm shift for publishing. Do you visit a newspaper website? Read eBooks?
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So where does Cuenca, Ecuador come into play as some of my current paradigms are starting to slip slide away? 

This is what I will be addressing in this blog – and I invite you to come along this journey, sharing you thoughts and experiences. 

I want to hear your comments, ideas and stories about this topic (and other retirement issues). So please send them to me and get published!

Meanwhile, I am going to visit the Panama Hat store today and take some photos to share -- and maybe even look for a new hat!

Thanks, and take care.

Susan

(Be sure to visit my retirement photos on Pinterest. And please add your own pins!)

Next time -- talking specifics about change. For me, changing how I live with diabetes has been a battle, but I am winning. Learning to speak Spanish, another shift. 

Do you have a similar change in your life to share? Has retirement provided a good time for this to occur? Please comment here.