CHAOS: What fun!

June 25, 2012

Evolution created us to be hunter-gatherers. Homo sapiens lived in caves and traveled around looking for game and searching for whatever flora fit for their needs. The women stayed at home taking care of the children and sweeping the floor. I suppose there were those who were more successful than others at finding food and it is at least plausible they survived and passed on their genes; the less successful didn't get here.

What does it take to be a successful hunter-gatherer? There are the usual attributes such as courage, skill and strength in the face of uncertainty. Where would the food animals and vegetation be found? What seasons made certain ones more likely than others. How to anticipate the appearance of sharp teeth and claws and adjust accordingly? Obviously, such information would favor survival; absent such information they lived in a chaotic environment. Everything would seem unpredictable, chaotic and most of life is like that.

Chaos is the bug-a-boo, the destroyer the cause of much misery. Chaotic events must be transformed into time-lines, after this, that, and patterns. Our ancient forebears understood cause and effect and did their best to get control. Absent control, they accounted for events with supernatural explanations . . . and denial.

Dear friends, the reality is that most of life is chaotic; but most of the time it moves in slow-motion providing the facade of stability and predictability. But, all too often it rears up and maims or kills us, or our loved ones. I know a young man who, while sitting in a car with a friend was shot by a random gunman. Was he killed? No but he became a quadriplegic. The police never found the shooter nor have they established a motive. He was quite religious before the event and now he is profoundly religious. God's plan is simply a denial of reality. Viet Nam veterans said, “Shit happens.”

We have medical science, laws, police, a military, politics and greater comprehension of the universe all designed to get chaos under control all under the under the illusion of at least partial success. But the core understanding is that all things are probabilistic. The young man was unlikely to get shot and surely unlikely to become quadriplegic. Pedophiles are unlikely to assault your child, The airplane is unlikely to crash. We are embedded in such improbable events and clamor for greater sophistication and better laws and, in truth, the appropriate people try hard but the reality that probability statements are the best we can do belies most of their efforts.

If we accept that our lives dangle from a thin thread how shall we find comfort in living? There is no certainty we will live long in comfort and die peacefully even though we strive for some version of that hope. What seems most reasonable is to accept the reality that the universe is not designed with our preferences in mind so that when chaos crosses the moat around our defenses we do not react with surprise and rage or mourning. Accepting what is bad is a pretty good way of making things better . . . until you die.

“The moving finger writes and moves on.

nor all thy piety and wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line

nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.”

All of us want to be certain

To live well before closing the curtain

Our motives are pure

But, we cannot be sure

That chaos won't provide a demotion