Time traces like a river meandering through an idyllic forest. The sound of babbling, lush vegetation and a tranquil deer sipping from the spring. Gushing water, frothing down step by step. The journey is long, and there are countless stories absorbed and rising to the amorphous surface. Pools gather in the margins of gravity. Here moss and lichen find a home, and cause the swirls to impede the flow. The space time continuum: a system of locks and channels deciding where you will go and what you will do. Nothing is pure, nothing is simple. The universe is complex and emergent.
Trace back every moment back to the big bang, till now and it’s all been laid out. Is there a purpose or a reason , no ? It just is. A rain drop has a piece of dust or ash at it’s center. Slowly it gathers molecule by molecule, drop by drop until the winds can no longer hold it up. It falls to meet the ground. Surface tension gives it’s aerodynamic shape. Contact between the pummeled lake surface, the drop depresses and rebounds to eject another drop . The undulation creates ripples in every direction. The drop didn’t ask to gather, it didn’t conspire to fall, the ripples had no directive. In this way, every atom and particle in the universe has a role to play. Every drop makes a ripple no matter how small, how big, or how short lived.
So many times we wonder if we can go back to a moment, an era, an idealized time. Only if I did this , rather than that. Imagine where I would be now? Those what ifs nag at the present. Take a second and split it apart it like a follicle of hair. The maelstrom suspended like you clicked pause on the remote control. The conversations, the antics, beer pong balls lodged in mid trajectory, a dropped cup about to hit the floor sedentary in a stand still. Walking down the stairs and you see her. You think to yourself, how can a person be so beautiful? The first time or the last, who knows? Let’s stay in this moment for a bit longer. In a slow steady world, silence dominates. Entropy is held against the ropes. Take a closer look at the world, the minute details unnoticed in the daily frenzy. A world on pause is your prison and your playground.
Press play, the beer pong ball lands in the cup with resounding victory. A cup hits the floor with a thud and beer splatters up in a crown to soak someone’s cotton skirt. The eternity that lasts in a second has escaped to fill the world. Fireflies light up the night, but for a moment, and a light drizzle saturates the air.
Destiny is not something chosen by you that you find, fall into, or that is written. It is complexity churning to cause a trillion enzymes to interact with the molecules with the right form. No one knows what a decision or step will take you. Meeting a friend may lead you to meeting your wife. A stray dog could bring you to your next job. A misspoken word can give you the best friends that you ever had. So why fret about this and that? What if I did that, what is I said this?
In the 7th grade, I took French with Mr. Lynn. All the other years prior and past were Spanish. That following summer I went to London and Paris. The first stop was to visit my oldest sister in London because she was studying abroad. After that we all went to Paris. Did the whole Paris thing. Up to the café in the Eiffel tower. Back at the base, I have one of those old disposable kodak cameras. I can’t fit the picture in my frame. How many times will you be at the tower? So, I start running backwards. I run as hard as could, with no eyes on the back of my head. My only focus is to fit the frame. One wrong step bound to happen, and I disturb a couple. My ass brought to the ground, my leg splayed over a stranger’s. I look up and start apologizing profusely. Then I realize, “ Mr. Lynn what are you doing here?”
Nothing is pure, nothing is simple. The universe is complex and emergent. Every drop makes a ripple no matter how small, how big, or how short lived. Take a closer look at the world, the minute details unnoticed in the daily frenzy. A world on pause is your prison and your playground. It is complexity churning to cause a trillion enzymes to interact with the molecules with the right form. No one knows what a decision or step will take you.
All you need is the courage is to make ripples, the rest will follow.