Everything changes – people, societies, politics, nature. But what remains when everything is in motion?
Ovid already knew: Everything flows. His ancient Metamorphoses describe transformation as destiny – divine, poetic, inevitable. Today, in an age of self-optimization, identity shifts, and digital performance, we experience modern versions of the same story. We no longer turn into trees or stars, but into avatars, algorithms, and marketing concepts.
The Metamorphosis of the World
Not only humans transform – the world itself is changing at breathtaking speed. Democracies once solid as rock are eroding in fast motion. Politics has become performance, parties have turned into influencer clubs. Ovid would have smiled: ministers as shapeshifters, adapting to the moods of the masses.
The climate crisis is the world’s own metamorphosis – glaciers melting, rivers drying, landscapes turning into deserts. We call it transformation and hope to manage it. But perhaps the question is not whether we save the world, but whether the world is saving us.
The Metamorphosis of the Self
Identity today is no longer fixed – it’s a subscription model, flexible and ever-changing. Between self-improvement and self-presentation, the modern self is in constant motion. “You can be anything,” we’re told – which often means: You must be everything.
Even our bodies have become projects: nutrition, fitness, and beauty dictated by algorithms. The psyche, too, is transformed – exhaustion becomes a narrative, anxiety a TED Talk.
Love, Relationships, Intimacy
Love itself has become metamorphic. Relationships are like software updates – versions 1.0 to 4.7, without warranty. Intimacy shifts between performance, therapy, and transaction. We transform with every connection, sometimes as desire, sometimes as the desired, sometimes as mere digital suggestion.
The Art of Metamorphosis
So how do we live with constant change? By learning to shape it. The art of metamorphosis is the art of embracing movement – to reinvent ourselves without dissolving.
Change is not our enemy but our essence. The question is not if we transform, but how.
