The Heaviness of Being

It seems amazing to me that everything that anyone ever does has an indelible effect on the lives of every other person and thing in the world, the universe even. None of us is truely invisible. In fact we are wholly part of everything. Perhaps this is what Milan Kundera meant by the "heaviness" in his book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"

For example, if a fly happens to fly by your nose and you swat it away, this will have an effect on everything and everyone in the world. It is scientifically impossible for anything to be totally isolated from this event. As a thought experiment (because in reality this experiment could not be carried out perfectly), imagine two video recordings of the world as it would be with and without this fly flying by. Play the recordings from your view of when you next observe some other people. It is possible that you may not see much difference immediately, but I'd speculate that within seconds or minutes these peoples' conversations are differing, and you would start to see corresponding differences in movement.

How about someone on the other side of the planet? Perhaps in the first few minutes you would not see any noticeable difference, but i'd speculate that within hours you would detect visible differences. These differences would escalate over time and after days, weeks, months, there maybe no relation between the two videos, though there would be some weaving a set plans are carried out (eg catching a flight, attending a meeting), but even these co-incidences would fizzle out with time, even for the most hardened planners.

The basic principle here is the well-known butterfly effect. After I just completed the last sentence, a fly just landed on my eye (no joke!) It caught me by surprise, and i swiped at it suddenly. The guy on the computer next to me turned to look for a moment. He is on some internet chat. At the very least, the time it has taken him to make his next response has changed slightly. As has my take on this blog- the text has changed completely. There will be ongoing repercussions of this event forever for everyone.

Perhaps this is why we need faith. There is a limit to the extent to which we can control our lives, ultimately we must accept that we are part of a whole, and with this acceptance comes a sense of holiness (from Old English hāl - whole).

Easier said though. My heart aches to feel this.