The Butterfly Effect

I was speaking with a friend about my blog and she told me how she once wrote a poem about a “mad man”... She said it was the first poem she ever wrote. I thought it was weird but I was curious to hear the details. She couldn't recall what she had written as it has been so many years past but she said she remembers the last line of her poem… it goes as follows…“Illusions are the realities of a mad person”. I thought this was a powerful statement. I thought about this further and decided to ask myself “what are the realities of a sane person”?  Is it everyday living, hopes or dreams? I wonder… That statement also made my mind wander to the movie I watched earlier that day, “The Butterfly Effect”. In this movie Ashton Kutcher was a kid who went through most of his childhood and teenage years blocking out harmful memories of significant events of his life. As he got older he somehow developed the ability to remember these past events and to supernaturally manipulate the past to suit his present realities as he realized that he did not like what he saw in the past and what was happening in the present. He opened a can of worms by doing this and it greatly influenced his life and that of his family and friends.  The moral of this movie was to show that the decisions we make today will affect the certainties of tomorrow.

Have you ever heard the saying that ‘the flutter of a butterfly's wings in one part of the world can cause a typhoon in another”? Prior to watching this movie I took the interpretation of that metaphor literally. According to Wikipedia, the phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. To simplify, it is the idea that a small change at one place in a system can have large effects somewhere else.

This is true. The seemingly insignificant or minute decisions we make can be the catalyst that simplifies or complicates our lives. Sometimes we rush to make decisions that at the time seem convenient and suitable but in the end have a negative rippling effect on us or on others. It can be as simple as getting into a squabble at work or responding to a remark or email when angry, whatever it is wisdom should precede every other attribute when making decisions in our everyday living.

With that said maybe we can conclude that "every day events are the realities of a sane person". So let’s be careful to ensure we don’t flap wings today that will cause a tornado tomorrow.  

Have a great week everyone!

Tuyo por siempre,

Chinny J