Order and Chaos

Our world is a mix of order and chaos. There is much order all about us. Everywhere we look there are patterns that allow us to predict what might happen next or how something will behave. When we see patterns we can understand. Order and structure are absolutely vital to life. Energy is required to adapt to change, so the more order that exists, the less energy we have to use coping with change.

We can generally rely on the sun to come up in the morning in the same way it has for countless millennial and for our physical environment to be more or less stable from day to day. We can count on the fact that using the process we used yesterday to cook a meal yesterday will still work tomorrow.

If there is too much order, we lose flexibility. We can only do things as they have been done before or follow the rules with no individuality.

On the other hand our world is also filled with chaos and unpredictability. We may wake up one morning and a flood has completely changed our physical environment. We can not always be sure how people will react to us, Circumstances constantly turnout in ways we are not expecting.

Chaos leaves room for novelty and diversity. Change allows new possibilities to emerge, so we are not trapped by our past. Chaos can be creative and powerful. Too much chaos is as problematic as too much order. When there is too much chaos everything changes to quickly to enable sufficient stability. We lose our ability to predict the future and be aware of the patterns occurring in the world about us.