There are just some things that watching inspires instant serenity. Well maybe not for everyone, but certainly for me. Like watching Snow drift down from the heavens. Waves lapping at the shore. Fire crackling in fireplace. clouds slowly moving by in the sky. Koi (or any pretty fish) swim around and around.
You can stare for ages, until you realise you've been staring at what is essentially the same thing for ages then you feel silly and look away.. but then eventually you get back to that trancelike state where you're just watching. Feeling calm because your head is mercifully empty for a change. your mind is completely elsewhere.
why is that?
i thought about it and though, maybe it has something to do with looking for patterns. Ever do that? predict where the next snowflake will fall, how far the next wave will reach. Try to see shapes in the clouds or the flames. try to image what those fishes are thinking. why did they swim in that pattern?
The key of course is that there is no pattern. You can't predict where the next snowflake will fall, only make guesses. the clouds aren't really shaped in funny animals, you're brain is just interpreting it that way, and maybe the fish aren't thinking anything at all, they are just answering the need to swim.
I think we all look for patterns in chaos. Chaos theory does just that. Order within the chaos. why? to make sense of things. if we see patterns, we feel safer. secure. we look for patterns everywhere. in our dealings with people, the world. we dont want to accept that random chance rules our lives. We imagine that there is purpose, and that we can control things. i dont mean like our destinies. of course it's up to us what we end up becoming. you want to be a doctor? go to med school.
I meant the landscape on our journeys. We dont like not knowing whats around the corner. We pray or we try to be good, hoping God or Karma or supersition.. (knock on wood) will prevent bad things from happening to us.
Then something happens. Harddrive died (when you've taken care of it), bird pooped on you (not the handful of other people standing right next to you), bit into an apple with a worm in it whatever. something you couldn't predict. you couldn't prevent. then you look for patterns. gee shit's been happeneing lot lately, maybe someone's cursed me. maybe God is punishing me. maybe this means good stuff is gonna happen next.. (fingers crossed.. bluh bluh bluh).
Is there order in the chaos? who knows.. fun to watch though..
2 comments:
i was just talking about the same thing a minute ago on the phone. there is something beautiful about chaos because however chaotic one event may be...say fish swimming for example...it still has an order to it...a reason, if you will on a higher plane (say world ecology for example...why they go to certain places to feed, etc). and it's that search for that state of mind and reason that makes religion so fascinating for me, even though at the end of the day there is no god, just energy.
i was just listening to and talking about Coldplay's music...how chaotic the music itself is, but how it's enveloped by the vocalist's often monotonous voice that some how makes it all work and sound very beautiful...serene chaos. im sure im just babbling along but anyway...something to think about
Post a Comment