THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

“Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”

This question was first posed by MIT meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the early 1960’s. Dubbed the “butterfly effect,” popular culture has generalized the term to affirm the predictability of huge change via tiny actions. Well and good. Lorenz, however, meant quite the opposite: Small variances in the initial conditions of a system (or situation) create the possibility of unpredictable yet profound alterations to the outcome of that very setting.

For example, when you or I undertake an act of kindness we create the possibility of altering the outcome of the context (situation/relationship) in which that kindness is performed.

The prime difference between such acts of kindness and what Putin is doing to the Ukrainians (and the world) is not so much one of kind as degree. Yes, he’s engaging in an act of unspeakable aggression instead of kindness. But it’s the scale on which he’s doing so that renders us speechless. After all, none of us is unfamiliar with acting out in aggressive ways.

Yet if each of us, and therefore all of us, engage in singular acts of kindness--even ones that seem random relative to today’s European/global context--the degree (and therefore potential butterfly effect) is far more massive than that of any single person. And, to the extent we direct that kindness toward our neighbors in Ukraine we create the opportunity for a different outcome than that of Putin’s medieval “siege and starve” tactics. 

Putin’s apple cart needs to be upset. Quite ironically, cumulative kindness can do that.

“And what does the Lord [Life] require of you [each of us] but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God [our neighbor]?” (Micah 6:8)

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S THINK ABOUT . . . AND INITIATE ACTS OF KINDNESS.