Gary Field
DC #M05398
Okeechobee, FL

The Butterfly Effect

It's been said that the flutter of a butterfly's wings on a dusty savanna in Africa can set in motion a chain of events which can lead to a hurricane taking aim at Florida's coast.

Now that may seem a bit far-fetched, but let's see if we can visualize such a thing...

Let's say a butterfly spreads its wings and startles a bird. The bird taking off could rouse the flock, which in turn could start a stampeded among a heard of zebra. The dust that rises into the air from the pounding of thousands of hooves could get caught up in a jet storm and carried out over the Atlantic. There, high up in the atmosphere, the dust particles and water molecules could play their role in helping to form an invest or tropical depression; from depression and tropical wave to storm warning—the next thing you know, there's a hurricane bearing down on Florida's coast.

So, the next time you find yourself at Home Depot stocking up on emergency hurricane supplies, you can blame it on them damn African butterflies. :D

Of course the meteorologists will tell you that the forming of a hurricane is much more complicated and entails several other elements. However, I just wanted to illustrate the concept of how seemingly minor events can have for reaching consequences.

Scientists have some pretty fancy terms for this effect—a chaos theory, deterministic chaos, or even a cascade event. But no matter what we decide to call it, we can see the examples of a butterfly effect all around us. We can see examples of the effect in scripture (where some may refer to it as the hand of God; we can see it being played out in society, in our communities, and even in our personal lives.

Ever since man's original fall from grace in The Garden, we've been looking for something or someone to blame when things go wrong. Adam claimed, "It was the woman you gave to be with me. She gave me of the fruit and I did eat of it." In one smooth move, Adam managed to blame it on both God and the woman. :D And Eve? She said, "it was the serpent. He pricked me and I did eat."

Many of us can never blame original sin on Adam and Eve. And it was they who set in motion a chain of events that, perhaps, led Bruce Jenner to say, "Call me Caitlin." :D

The fact is the Butterfly Effect has been setting things off long before Queen Latifah made that movie. But far too often, by the time we begin to notice the results, we're in the midst of some catastrophe.

Many people say that the extreme weather events that greet us each day on Good Morning America are the results of global warming, that the greenhouse gases and burning of fossil fuel could be causing climate change, and shifting weather patterns. Although we might not all agree on the causes, we can clearly see the effects as wildfires burn out of center on the west and homes are washed away by flood on other parts of the country.

In 1914, a little known Duke was shot in Sare, Evo. A place that many had never heard of—but most agree that his death set in motion a chain of events which led to WWI. That war merely set the stage for WWII, which, by the time the smoke had cleared, left the United States and the Soviet Union facing off as Cold War enemies.

In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. We found an enemy of our enemy to be our friend. Our C.I.A. backed a tall Arab in flowing robes to confront the forces of the Soviet Union—war by proxy. We provided intelligence, training, and weapons in that ten year conflict. During that time, we helepd him and his majahedeen (holy warriors) to recruit students and to build a base of operations which arranged and trained Agltoers from all across the Arab world. Ten years later, the Soviet Union retreated.

Unfortunately, the Arabic world for student is "talib," and we've now come to know them as the Taliban. The Arabic word for "the base" is Al-Qaeda... and that tall Arab man who we helped to pull that organization together became known to the world as Osama Bin-Laden.

In 1955, a secretary would refuse to give up her seat on a bus, and a little known preacher would help organize a boycott. Sometimes a cascade of events can lead to a dream, as it did in the case of Rosa Parks and Dr. King. But, far too often, what we get is chaos.

Rodney King made a decision to hit the gas rather than get pulled over, and it wasn't long until Los Angeles went up in flames.

What I would like us to consider is this: no one wakes up one day and says, "I want to set in motion a chain of events that will lead me into a double-digit prison sentence." So why is it that so many of us have found ourselves in that valley? Or with so much "time" on our hands?

If we can recognize the fact that a negative chain of events can so easily be set in motion, then shouldn't the opposite be true? Shouldn't it be possible for us to set in motion a positive chain of events? And shouldn't we make every effort to do so?

The same way that it doesn't take all day to recognize sunshine. It shouldn't be all that hard to figure out when we're walking in darkness, playing in the shadows, or following a false light—it shouldn't be that difficult to figure out when we are on the verge of setting off a negative chain of events.

Like a pebble in a pond whose ripples reach for different shores, your actions will set in motion a chain of events that may impact your family, the community, or society. They could have an impact on the nation or even touch the world.

Now, we might not be able to stop a hurricane from forming, but we can begin taking control of our lives. We can begin striving to set forth a positive flow of events into the lives of those around us, rather than leaving a trail of destruction.

We can't control our destiny. We can't control what may be happening five, ten, or fifteen years from now. We can only control ourselves, one act at a time. But each act becomes a brick, and it's with those bricks that we will lay the foundation upon which our lives will either rise or fall.

What we need to realize is that each "act", or action, is preceded by a thought—so let us think clearly and act wisely. After all, we have a lot more to work with than some damn African butterflies. :D

—Gary

www.betweenthebars.org/blogs/1398