Here’s something to think about. Life is basically a mess. And, purportedly, that’s exactly what makes it work.
I recently read an article about all the chaos in our world. In it, political scientist Brian Klaas argued that the world isn’t as orderly as we pretend it is.
In fact, chaos, and not control, is the real rule of the game. In his book Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters, Klaas points out that even the tiniest moments can ripple into world-altering consequences. That good old Butterfly Effect.
Take Henry Stimson. In 1926, he vacationed in Kyoto and fell in love with the city. Nineteen years later, he was the U.S. Secretary of War. Orders came down to drop the bomb to end World War II. He made the decision not to bomb Kyoto. Hiroshima was hit instead. And there it is. A single fond memory from a long-ago trip changed the course of history.
That’s chaos theory in action. The “butterfly effect” made real. A butterfly flaps its wings, and somewhere else, a storm begins. Or maybe you hit snooze one extra time, and because of sleeping five more minutes, you meet someone you never would’ve met otherwise. Perhaps it is your wife to be.
It seems that life unfolds from these random, infinitesimal moments, and not from master plans.
In the article, Klaas said we’ve been tricked into thinking we’re in control. Everything around us contributes to this. Our tidy schedules, the GPS in our cars, our calendars, and more. They all tell us the same lie: “We have everything under control.”
But the truth? We’re just moving from moment to moment. The future is unforecastable. We all know that even the smallest variation, one breath, one choice, one blink of an eye, can rewrite the entire map of our lives.
So how do we reel it all in? How do we gain control? We don’t. We never will. Klaas suggests that it is best just to loosen our grip. Build resilience instead of perfection. The world doesn’t reward efficiency so much as adaptability.
He says we should stop trying to hold everything in a nice, neat package.
A good example of this is the 2021 Suez Canal fiasco. Remember? One ship was stuck, and in just a few days, $50 billion was lost. This should be proof enough. When systems run too tightly, they break. Or so he says.
Klaas suggests experimenting more. Try new routes. Change routines. Leave space for randomness.
So there it is. Even after reading all of this, I can’t help to think just how much I love neat and tidy. I like things to go as expected. I like to feel like I am in control.
But in reality, that is never the case. Things might be going just fine, but it happens that way largely from an outside source. We may not control everything, but everything we do still matters. Is it random chaos as Klass suggests? Or are the comings and goings of the Universe all lining up exactly as planned?
Klass says chaos doesn’t erase meaning. Instead, it amplifies it. Every small act, every choice, sends out invisible ripples that can shift the whole tide.
So go ahead. Do the unexpected. It is okay to miss the bus, take a detour, or say yes to the unplanned thing.
Perhaps the world is messy, unpredictable, and wild with possibility. And that’s where all the magic hides. The magic and goodness in the unknown.
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“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” — Deepak Chopra
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“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.” — Henry Adams
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“Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.” — Bob Goff
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“Man plans, and God laughs.” — Yiddish Proverb
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