Drops in the Ocean

I have a confession to make. The previous assumptions that I have blogged about are actually rewrites on entries I have in my journal for the year. I'm not quoting myself verbatim or even use the same stories but a lot of the concepts I've developed in my previous posts have been written about before by me... until now. I'm starting in uncharted territory here so, if I start going astray, I apologize. It's my first crack at these topics.

The following concept is not new. It was developed probably closer to just shy of 2000 years ago and, in Western Culture, particularly Texan culture, it would be a little difficult to escape Biblical passages. The one on my mind tonight is James 4:14.

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Not exactly an uplifting verse and I won't speak to the theological implications of it but what I will say is this.  I agree with James when he says that we are mists. We are only around for a short stretch of time before we are gone, wiped off the face of the world to be heard from no more. We are a drop in the bucket. To paint a more accurate picture, we are a drop in an eternal ocean.

Depressed yet? You shouldn't be.

In chaos theory, there's a concept known as the Butterfly Effect. This may invoke images of a terrible movie with Ashton Kutcher in it but, let me assure you, the two are unrelated, as far as I can tell. In chaos theory, the Butterfly Effect refers to an idea that the flap of the wing of a butterfly can cause a small change in the atmosphere which, potentially, could hinder or give birth to a tornado somewhere in the world. Now, quite obviously, there are other factors involved in making or breaking that tornado but it may be the case that this small creature doing this minor action is the key component to such a drastic event in the history of the world.

In a similar way, the actions a man takes create ripples in the eternal ocean. These ripples can join together to make waves. These waves can join together to make greater waves and so on. In the same way, mighty waves, in isolation, will disperse as there energy is lost and become nothing. This eternal ocean is a great equalizer. It can make the mighty fall and uplift the weak. It raises empires and then desolates them. And where the waves will culminate next? It would be nearly impossible to tell unless you had a grasp on all of the energy in the system. However, that's another topic for another time.

What am I getting at? This is what I'm getting at, my next assumption:


The measure of the life of a man is equivalent to the power with which the components of his existence that he controls touches and effects the remainder of reality.

That's a bold statement. And I'm not just referring to the font-weight property of the text. (CSS guys, you with me? No? Ok, moving on.) That statement is so bold that I'm going to have to stop this post and let that sink in.

I would encourage you, dear reader, to think on this statement and probe it as much as you can. If this were true, what would it mean? How would you live if you felt this were true? Or how do you live if you already believe it to be true? What does it mean to have an effect upon eternity, to be able to stretch beyond the life of a man to effect the remainder of reality? How do Western concepts of good and evil play into this?

If you have anything to say, please share it in the comments section. I built up the crux of my thought / theory in the last post and now I have given you the key to my understanding of life as I know it so I cannot stress enough how important this is to take seriously.

Next time, I will expound upon this idea and, hopefully, get into my next assumption. I only have a handful of them left and they may be used up within the next one or two blog posts so stay tuned. So, until next time!

Self-Determination

This is somewhat of an important post. It's the crux of the practical portion of my argument so I hope I don't screw it up. I apologize for it taking so long but I want to make sure that my thoughts were all here. It all begins with a question.

When you think of what defines a man, what do you think of?


From a historical perspective, it's the actions a man takes and the consequences these actions have therein. From a spiritual/metaphysical perspective, it's the passions he has and the thoughts that drive him to achieve a more definitive state of being. From a biological perspective, it's flesh, bones, tissues and memories imprinted upon others. All of these things and more can describe what a man is.

Yet, I would like to take this a step further and, with my next assumption, claim a relation between the definition of a man from all of these perspectives to the constitution of reality.

Events in a man's life, thoughts that he has, actions he takes can all be considered as some of the components of reality.

Within out definition of existence, we can take not to the fact that other entities can and do observe these components of a man's existence. As a refresher, our definition of existence is relative between an entity (the existor) that perceives the existence of an entity (existee). I would go as far as to say that these components of a man can, and do, trigger additional components within reality as a whole. This is observable but, as I must state, assumed. It is one thing to claim that components interact on their own and are observed / perceived by other components and a whole other matter to say that, through these interactions, effect the components to which they exist. I feel this is, however, a necessary but minor assumption.

Moreover, these components can go beyond the finitude of a man's biological existence. This, I feel, is not so much of an assumption but a logical conclusion to a chain reaction of existence upon existors but, again, I must say, in good faith, it is an assumption I use.

On a related note, fairly recently, I watched a lecture on TED talks about quantum mechanics entitled Making sense of a visible quantum object and it made an interesting point that I wanted to share.

You hear a lot of talk about how quantum mechanics says that everything is all interconnected. Well, that's not quite right; it's more than that, it's deeper. It's that those connections, your connections to all the things around you, literally define who you are.

I realize that I may be bending O'Connell's words at this point but I do see a parallel between his words and my philosophy. Seemingly, an entity (existor) that perceives an existing entity (existee) and therefore has defines the existence of the existee in such a way. If you begin to remove the existors from the picture, the existee becomes a little more ambiguous, a little less well-defined. Add existors to the picture and the existee becomes bounded to the existor's definition.

I know, I'm reading into this a little much but it brings me to my next important assumption.

Regardless of free will or lack thereof, man can control these components within some capacity of his abilities.

A man is made of stuff. We've established that. This stuff includes events in his life, actions he takes, and thoughts he has. It's not too difficult to make the leap to him being able to control the components within some capacity of his abilities. Some of the objections that may be raised, in my experience, have been: What about free will? If he doesn't have free will, how is he really in control, in any capacity, of these components that make up his being? To that I say, doesn't matter.

This is somewhat of a brash statement. I mean, we encounter this idea of "free will" in philosophy and theology all the time. However, from a practical perspective, whether we truly choose what we do or if we are controller by a set of determinable components, we still interact with the reality in which we exist. Whether the components that we see ourselves as controlling are controlled by some movement of a mysteriously unknowable force called free will or by a knowable albeit complex sequence called logic, the components in our reality that make us up effect the remainder of reality.

And so it is. A man is bounded by the definition given to him by the existors. A definition which he can help mold with his actions and thoughts to some capacity of his abilities. This is a measure for him. Let me leave you with that hint about my next post, which, hopefully, will come soon.