The Buddhist philosophy says that permanence is an illusion that we cling to, and that clinging to it causes us suffering. Either we are so focused on the future that we miss the now, or we try to make things stay the way they are. Both approaches to fixing this problem become suffering. Some Buddhists remind themselves of this principle by placing cut flowers on their altar or shrine. As the flowers rapidly change from young, to full-bloom, to waning, and desiccated, there is no denying the changes.
Living things are constantly changing. Cells grow and age, are replenished and replaced. Our systems are responding to constantly changing stimuli and context, and therefore are changing. All living things are always aging, growing, shrinking, getting stronger and weaker, moving through cycles, and passing through stages of existence.
As living things, we as individuals have ideas about our bodies that are based on past experiences. Ideas about our body types, our capabilities, what is normal for us, become part of our identity. Experience is of course a critical teacher. However, if we are not currently listening to our bodies, those ideas can quickly become mistaken. I still think of myself as a tree-climber, a monkeybar-swinger. As I am nearing 40 years of age, I must recognize that this no longer true for me. Many other changes are more critical to our health for us to notice. Digestive processes, reproductive systems, our heart and circulatory system, muscles and bones, are all in need of our awareness of changes as time passes.
As public health professionals, it is important for us to be aware of how audiences see themselves, which may be based on their past instead of their present. However, the physical world is not the only one that changes; the psychosocial landscape is also constantly in flux. As I sat training a new qualitative data collector, I realized this important way in which we need to remember nonpermanence in our work. When we collect data, the information we are collecting is true for the person we are listening to, at the time we are listening.
As we prepare to ask recent fathers about their prenatal and postnatal experiences with breastfeeding information and infant feeding, we must remember that what they tell us is true today. Two months ago, they may have said something different. Two weeks from today, they may tell another story. Today, this is his truth.
It is easy, as professionals, to feel that we know a population, a community, and how it perceives a topic. However, that answer is inherently yesterday's answer (or, more likely, last year's). The value of qualitative research is that we find what today's truth is. To communicate with our audiences in the present, we need that knowledge.
