Chaos!

Image by thefost via Flickr

Or more interestingly the Chaos Theory. Mathematics has come alive for me in recent years, although I profess not to understand most of it. Indeed a series on Mathematics has just finished on the BBC (more on that nepotistic lot on another day) and although the presenter must have had a marvellous time globetrotting he failed to do, what as an educator he should do, and properly explain how things worked to me. For instance he said that the ancients were able to work out how far the moon was away from the earth by measuring the sine of the suns angle to the earth but I still don't know how to work out the sine of an angle.
 However, as usual dear reader I digress, as it is the end product of these calculations that fascinates me most. According to the Chaos Theory the beat of a butterfly's wing can start off an unexpected consequence, like a World War, five thousand miles away. And when you think about it this is a bit like consequences. For instance if you were to turn right instead of left on one of your journeys today it could affect the rest of your life. Last night, as I was going to bed for instance, reaching to the back of the cabinet for a battered mug I managed to cause two bone china cups to crash to the floor and break. Who knows what the consequences will be? I will have to search around various shops to find replacements and the first step of that journey, or a chance meeting, could change my life forever.
 So think about what you do today, and reflect when you go to bed this evening, on what might have been if you had done something differently or bathe in the knowledge that something wonderful happened because of an action that you took. Try helping someone, worse off than yourself. Despite the horrors that we all have to endure there is always someone, somewhere who is worse off and an act of kindness from you could change not only their lives but also your own. May good fortune travel with you.

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