About two years ago I read a novel that got me interested in Quantum Physics. I wasn’t interested in the formulas exactly. I’m not smart enough to get those anyway. I just wanted to know what Quantum Physics IS. I’ve seen the phrase……just didn’t understand it. So, I ventured to my local library and got some volumes that basically equated to “Physics for Dummies”. What I learned was fascinating. One of the primary elements of Quantum Physics is that once the smallest elements of matter are introduced to each other, (not atoms, but even smaller particles called quarks) anything you do to one particle affects the other…..NO MATTER HOW FAR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER THEY GET! In other words, you can introduce two particles, send one into outer space, stimulate one, and see the reaction in the other!
So that naturally got me thinking about the order of things and how every single thing we do, every move we make, every person we meet, changes the natural order of things….forever. I liken it to the ripples a pebble makes when thrown in a pond. Stay with me here.
Let’s say that this morning you got up for work, got dressed and headed out the door. You made it to your car and discovered you’d left the keys inside the house. So back inside you go and delay your trip by maybe two minutes. That one change in schedule had a ripple effect on all of traffic for the rest of the day. Maybe that two minutes kept you from a horrible accident. Maybe it caused one. What if you turned left at the light instead of right? What if you drove 65 mph instead of 60?
Let’s say that this morning you got up for work, got dressed and headed out the door. You made it to your car and discovered you’d left the keys inside the house. So back inside you go and delay your trip by maybe two minutes. That one change in schedule had a ripple effect on all of traffic for the rest of the day. Maybe that two minutes kept you from a horrible accident. Maybe it caused one. What if you turned left at the light instead of right? What if you drove 65 mph instead of 60?
Maybe we can get more personal. Did you give money to the beggar on the street? Yes? That could mean he went on to a successful career in medicine. You didn’t give him money? Maybe that meant he couldn’t buy more booze which meant he never reached “bottom” and never got the help he needed, so in frustration he robbed a liquor store and killed two people. The children of those two people are affected forever, as are their kids, and their kid’s kids…….you get the picture. It seems like a much easier decision at the time doesn’t it? How many people do we pass each day and say hello? Or NOT? That person says hello to someone else and so on.
I could come up with a hundred examples, but the point is this. Everything we do, every day of every month of every year affects the future permanently and irreversibly. Now imagine that every person on earth has that same influence, which they do. The variables are staggering. There isn’t a computer in the world, or psychic for that matter, that can accurately predict what our future holds because billions of people are making billions of choices every second. And every choice changes things forever. It sort of makes your head hurt doesn’t it? It even brings about religious, ethical, political and moral questions. Every decision is right or wrong….right AND wrong.
Just remember that next time you turn left instead of right, shake a hand or don’t, sleep 8 hours or only 6, you’ve changed everyone’s future forever. It’s a wonder any of us ever make a decision.
