Brucisms - Thoughts on Life, Leadership, and The Pursuit of Happiness

photo by Chris Schmidt

Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.

George Santayana (Spanish born American Philosopher, Poet and Humanist who made important contributions to aesthetics, speculative philosophy and literary criticism. 1863-1952)

The Illusion of Chaos

I was catching up on my blog reading today and came across the article Wrenching order from chaos in your life on A Miracle A Day. Jason is a thoughtful and motivating writer, and I agree with his underlying message of personal responsibility; however, I respectfully disagree with the premise of wrenching order from chaos.

Jason writes:

Order, or at least the human perception of it, doesn’t come naturally. Nature is full of chaos and random chance, not the planning and structure that our minds crave. That means that someone, at some point, has to step in and take action to change the natural course in order for that structure to be built.

On this point I have to disagree. Nature is very orderly and balanced. If it were not, life itself could not exist.

As I am writing this, my heart is regulating my blood, my lungs are regulating my breathing, neurons are firing within my brain, nerves are sending signals to my hands - all these things and millions more are working in perfect order!

Chaos is an Illusion

Imagine that you are at Union Station on a balcony looking down onto the crowds of people below you. Everyone is scurrying from one place to another in a seemingly chaotic, random fashion. But under this seeming disorder, is in fact, perfect order. Each person is going to a specific destination. It is our lack of context and perspective that colors our perception of circumstances and makes them appear chaotic.

Chaos only exists within the human mind when we cannot control the natural order of things.

Control is a lie

We feel that our circumstances are “chaotic” when we no longer have control over them. But we never have control - it is our belief that we can control nature to fulfill our own desires that brings us into disharmony with natural order. It is this disharmony that creates the chaos in our minds. But the only thing you will ever control is your decisions. And this is the wonder of life - because it is our ability to adapt to changing circumstances, to accept the ups and downs, yet still be compassionate, determined, and creative - this is what makes us uniquely human.

I for one am grateful for the “chaos” of life. If it were not for the unexpected - our life would be like a book that we’ve read the ending to. Boring and predictable.

Success lies not in our ability to “take action to control chaos” - it lies in our ability to adapt, thrive, and accept change as a wondrous gift.

That is the miracle of life.

Please help me reach my goal of having 100 subscribers by March 31, 2008 by Subscribing to Brucisms!

Related posts:

1. Tina Su, Where Are You?
2. Book Review: Blink * The Power of Thinking Without Thinking