Small Changes the World

Small Changes the World

By Charlie Melton

Small inputs cause spectacular changes. The people that study such things say that in a flock of starlings each bird tries to get to the center of the flock as they fly. A starling sees a hawk, and tries to move to a safer position. This causes his neighboring starlings to move. The movements are telegraphed throughout the flock. To an observer, it appears to be a carefully choreographed swirling and spinning motion of the entire flock that is beautiful to see. The aerobatics are really just a response to a small movement of individual starlings on the fringes of the population. While it’s truly chaotic, it looks incredibly well planned.

Most are aware of the “butterfly effect”. The butterfly effect is commonly understood to mean that a butterfly moving its wings in Brazil can cause a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. The real meaning is that the causes of the hurricane are so chaotic and unknowable that even the butterfly could have affected it. It’s impossible to know if the butterfly, or any other small action contributed to the hurricane, but the hurricane exists.

I think that our lives are like that. You may do, or not do, a small insignificant thing that contributes to an immense occurrence. Let’s reason this out.

You see a car along the highway with a flat tire. You stop and help change the tire. The driver drives off to make an important appointment with the doctor. The doctor performs a test that shows the person has the early stages of cancer. This person gets the treatment and recovers, and eventually has a child. That child becomes a great leader. You can’t say that your small input gave rise to a great leader. You can say your small input had a corresponding effect. The end result of many small inputs from many places was the great leader.

You see the same car with a flat tire and don’t stop. The person misses the appointment and eventually dies of the disease that wasn’t caught early enough. They never have a child to become a great leader. You didn’t cause the lack of a beneficial outcome, but you perhaps contributed to it.

We could go on and on with infinite possibilities as the outcome of a single input. It’s impossible to know what effect actions have in the scheme of things. Even scientists that study complex systems can precisely duplicate all inputs and get diverse outcomes.

The point is that everything we do has an effect. We can never know what that effect is, but it’s significant just the same. When we drive by the car with the flat tire, we’ve made a choice that has long range and profound consequences. Stopping to help also has consequences. We’ll never know this side of heaven how the act plays out.

We don’t go about our lives in a vacuum. We touch lives, and ours are touched, everyday. We’re part a grand chaotic dance, just like the starlings doing aerobatics over the fields. What we do matters on so many levels we can’t come close to comprehending all of the ramifications.

We’re not alone and we matter in infinite ways. We have profound effects on others. Always remember that.