When a complex system is far from equilibrium,
small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos
have the capacity to shift the entire
system to a higher order.
Illya Prigogine–Nobel Laureate
I’ve been captured by this quotation for a couple of weeks now. I admit that I looked up Illya Prigogine and tried to understand a synopsis of his work in chemistry. I didn’t understand a lot, but I do think I understand this: his work focused on change and how that change is brought about by small instances of internal self-organization.
Here’s what I find in the quote above.
–Complex systems can become wildly imbalanced.
–Within those complex systems there can be small communities that organize and hold together despite the chaos.
–When there are enough of those self-organized small communities holding together they can cause the larger complex system to move into a higher order of functioning.
Here’s my hopeful translation of all that.
–Our nation, and much of the world, is a complex system that has become wildly imbalanced.
–But, there are small communities of coherence, self-organizing communities that have a clear vision, know how to work together, and are aiming for good outcomes despite the chaos around them. I like to think that UUCG is one of those small islands of coherence and that it, in fact, has within it other small islands of coherence. You likely know of other small islands of coherence that you are a part of in a sea of chaos.
–The work of repair that has the long view in mind means that we keep doing what we do in our small islands of coherence, for the good of our community, for the good of the communities around us. As a result, we may initiate a shift of the entire system/world to a higher order.
What we are doing in our community matters.
~Bob Patrick
