The Butterfly Effect
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Recently, I had the opportunity to visit an exhibit at a local church. I was guided through the life of a child living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Step into Africa, a World Vision Experience: AIDS. Olivia, whose life I followed, is real; her name has been changed. Having already lost her parents and a sibling to the AIDS epidemic, Olivia experienced more heartache when a man invaded her home and raped her. She became pregnant and had a son. Soon after, Olivia was raped a second time by the same man and gave birth to a second child—a girl. This time, she went to a clinic and found that she and her daughter were HIV positive; her son was not. Olivia and her daughter may die, and her son will be left to fend for himself.
As I walked through the burlap curtains dividing segments of Olivia's life, I saw what may have been her house. I looked at nameless photos and read staggering statistics on the burlap walls, and I listened to Olivia's story on an iPod, hearing her cries for help as she was raped. I thought, How does something like this happen? This is a child! If this were to happen in our country, it would be headline news. In places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Olivia lives, it happens often. There is no reporter, no camera crew in a Winnebago on the front lawn, no detective on the case.
At the end of the recording, I helplessly turned in my iPod. There should be something more to be done. It can't just "be over." But it is. I reached into my purse to get my car keys and noticed a note card with a butterfly on it. I'd put it there as a reminder of The Butterfly Effect, and that there are always consequences to my actions. Some consequences aren't so bad, but more often than not, they affect us in ways we can't imagine.
Is Making a Difference Possible?
Actor and director Ashton Kutcher made The Butterfly Effect a hot topic not long ago in a couple of movies with the same name, but it was in the 1960s that meteorologist Edward Lorenz first introduced it. While studying weather patterns, he noticed that even the smallest variation in the wind's velocity and trajectory would, over time, severely affect a weather system. Since weather systems travel, it could be said that the flap of a butterfly's wing could affect the weather thousands of miles away. The altering of individual weather patterns affects the climate in general, which, in turn, affects bird migration patterns, which, in turn, affect plant pollination and ultimately, the life cycle of our planet's ecosystem. That's one heck of a butterfly.
How can something so small, doing what comes naturally, adversely affect my world, and Olivia's, a thousand or even only a hundred years later? How can we even tell that it has? When dominos are spaced just far enough from one another, and angled perfectly in relation to one another, we can knock the first one down and see each reaction in the chain. The Butterfly Effect happens on a much less tangible scale, over many years. We can see a butterfly, or we can see a flower bloom. We don't know it wasn't originally meant to bloom at that time, because we didn't write the rule book, and we can't point to dominoes and say, "See, that's how it happened," but according to The Butterfly Effect, it did happen.
Related Topics:
Accountability, Activism, Advocate, Attitude, HIV/AIDS, Responsibility, Serving
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Vickie Fitzgerald
We often need to be reminded that our actions matter...not only to ourselves but to others, and not only today but in times to come. Robin's article offers that reminder. Nicely done!
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