Echoes of Creation: Chaos to Order in Everyday Life

Just about every creation story has a sense of bringing Chaos to some semblance of order. Sometimes by accident in the battle between gods (Enuma Elish) and sometimes on purpose is in the Genesis one creation account. But chaos to order didn't occur JUST at the creation of the world, it occurs every day. We just call it by a different name; we call it a swarm.

Individuals and groups from neurons and cancer cells to birds and fish organize themselves into collectives, and those collectives move in predictable ways. But the ways those swarms, schools, flocks and herds flip from chaos to order differ. Here's a few:

Golden Shiners (fish) seek darkness. Presumably for protection, shiners search out dark waters. But they can't actually perceive changes in light levels that might guide their way; instead, they follow one simple directive. When light disappears, slow down. As a result, the fish in a school pile up in dark pools and stay put.

Ants work in rhythm. When ants of a certain species get crowded enough to bump into each other, coordinated waves of activity pulse through them every 20 minutes.

Locusts are cannibalistic. When enough locusts squeeze together, bites from behind send individuals fleeing to safety. Eventually they organize into conga-line-like clusters to avoid being eaten. They also emit pheromones to attract even more locusts, resulting in a swarm.

Starlings do what their neighbors do. These birds coordinate their speed and direction with just a half dozen of their closest murmuration-mates, regardless of how packed the flock gets. With a micro-second reaction time those interactions are enough to steer the entire group in the same direction.

Honeybees head butt each other. When honeybees return from searching for a new next, they waggle in a dance that identifies the location. But if multiple sites exist, a bee can advocate for its choice by ramming its head into the other waggling bees. A bee that gets butted enough times stops dancing, ultimately leaving the hive with one option.

Even humans become easy followers, seeking order in chaos. Absent normal communication, humans can be as impressionable as a flock of sheep. Of one member of a walking group is instructed to move toward a target, though other members may not know the target - or even that there is a target - the whole group will eventually be shepherded into that direction.

It is in our nature to seek order out of chaos. Perhaps that is why the creation of the world was depicted in that way in ancient times.

Our God is a God of order, which gives my OCD tendencies great comfort. But even on a greater scale; since we messed up this world we (and even the world itself) are crying out for order in the chaos we have made of things. It is part of the image of God in us but it is also one of the hopes and prayers built in us for heaven itself. The last book of the Bible is Revelation, the last chapters of the last book tell us that when the dwelling of God is, again, with man that there will be no more "sea"; meaning there will be no more chaos. I, for one, am looking forward to that. You?

The Easy Stuff

I watched another video of some crazy kid jumping off a building with a skateboard. There are other videos of stunts and actual acts of amazing acumen all over the internet. It seems that a lot of people are into conquering their fear and daring life and limb. I am here to say that that stuff is the easy stuff.

It is easy because it is a momentary rush of adrenaline and a flash of ability to conquer your fears. While it does take practice to do many of these stunts and many hospital visits to get good at them; most of them can be done by a novice with some alcohol lubrication.

It is not that I don’t appreciate talent and the ability to conquer fear, I do, very much; what I am saying is that this kind of ability is the easy stuff. Let me tell you about the hard stuff.

I went to the retirement part of a man at a factory I worked at. No big deal because it happens all the time. But what if I told you he worked for 54 years for the same company?  It is still not too big of deal for a man of his generation, right? What if I told you that he did not have a single sick day in those 54 years? What if I told you that he was a janitor on a janitor’s salary in a NON-union shop the whole time? What if I told you that on that janitor’s salary he put 6 kids through college and has no payments on his home? NOW we are getting to the hard stuff. This man and his wife (who didn’t work outside the home) sacrificed for 54 years on a minimum wage job and after those years they can now retire to do whatever they want … THEY did the hard stuff.

“It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not to strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition (or Youtube fame) when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud-pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory)

We have become pleased with the easy stuff and unwilling to even picture the joy that comes from the hard stuff. You think jumping off a building with only a skateboard is hard to do? Try telling an ignorant co-worker that their sexually charged and abusive joke was offensive and wrong. You think skydiving is hard? Try holding your tongue when it is right to “turn the other cheek.” We play too much in the “mud-pies” of the easy stuff and can’t even imagine the joy that comes from the hard stuff.

The Hard Stuff

I start a lot of things. Most of them I fail at, get sick of, find too hard, or simply don’t put in the work to make them successful. I have read and have written that for you to be truly an expert at something you have to put in at least 10,000 hours at whatever it is. If you want to be good at basketball, you have to put in at least 10,000 hours of practice and you will be good, even more to be great.

A corollary of that rule is that in order to get to the “good stuff” you have to go through the “hard stuff”. Does any of this sound familiar?

“I want to be a writer, but I don’t want to have to write all the time.”

“I want to play sports, but I want to make sure I make the team before I try.”

“I want to sell whatever, but I don’t  want to do the marketing and talking to people.”

We SO want to be successful without putting in the hard work to get there. It is very rare for people to just “fall into” wealth and expertise. We just want the “good parts” but don’t want work it takes to get there.

As a manager of three shifts I could pretty much set my own hours for work. I had to touch base with all three shifts so sometimes I would start at 3:00 am and leave at 1:00 pm and I can still remember people saying to me, “Must be nice to go home early!” They thought I had the good stuff without any of the hard stuff.

John Steinbeck said, “True things gradually disappear and shiny easy things take their place.” I think what he was saying is that we give up the hard stuff so easy. Did you ever think that the reason it is the “hard stuff” is the same reason there are so few doing it and that there is tremendous opportunity at the end of that hard stuff? Successful people, however you describe it, are successful because they did the hard stuff. The VERY THING you are seeking is at the end of the “hard stuff”!

Parents face the “hard stuff” every day. Disciplining a 2-3 year old is the hard stuff you have to do to have a respectful teenager and well-adjusted adult. Being consistent with your kids, loving them enough to give them boundaries – is the hard stuff. It is easy just giving them whatever they want so they quit whining and complaining but think of the kind of teenager you are building?

Do the hard stuff because it pays off in the end.

Do the hard stuff because success is at the end of it AND that is the only way to get there. 

Full Credit for being Alive

I had another bout with back pain recently and it was enough to visit the emergency room at the local hospital. They found what they thought was the problem after a few tests looking at my spine, found an arthritis thing that I will have to deal with the rest of my life, gave me some drugs and sent me home.

Drugs. I don’t understand people who are hooked on drugs. Don’t get me wrong, I have my own habits and I am far from perfect; but I just don’t understand the allure. The drugs didn’t take away the pain, they just made me not care about it. They made me inactive and loopy for days where I barely got anything done, and they just didn’t make me feel good. I don’t get it.

It reminded me of a quote from Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five: “How nice to feel nothing and still get full credit for being alive.” I called it being MIA, (Missing in Action) and my wife just called me loopy and scary. But that is what drugs are all about: getting credit for being alive when you really aren’t. You walk around, zombie-like, and get still pretend you are alive.

There are many things that can do this to you besides drugs. Most habits take the place of really living. You can “spend” your life on the pursuit of your personal addiction or you can “live” your life by getting involved, by getting moving, and by interacting with people. I know a lot of people who have their little smart-phones as their drug. They spend their day pressing little buttons that interact with games, friends, and just general wireless pabulum. I appreciate the ability to interact with people I would never be able to interact with outside of the internet’s social sites, but I also appreciate even more the ability to see them face to face and REALLLY INTERACT with them. I know people with over 1000 friends on Facebook; really? Really do you believe they are friends? I would much rather have a few good friends sitting in my office with me right now than 1000 somewhere in the cloud.

I pray this smart-phone generation does not get “credit for living” like the drug generation a few decades ago because this quote from Jim Morrison seems to fit today:

          “My mind and body are still out’a tune …

          I hope they run into each other real soon.”