During my last few years of high school, I belonged to a choir.
I can't really remember how or why I joined a choir since I didn't really like singing and I couldn't read music, but joined, I did. (How I passed the audition, is still a mystery to me.)
It was a motley crew of people from many different backgrounds, but what was quickly apparent to me, was that they all seemed very dedicated to this choir.
When the conductor raised his baton (conductors stick), forgotten were the differing views on religion, politics, moral dilemmas, whether Jimi Hendrix were a better guitarist than Eric Clapton, or Yoko Ono destroyed the Beatles. Once the baton was raised, all that mattered, was the music.
I was amazed at the transition from a cacophony of people arguing and debating to in an instant becoming the harmonious sound of a choir.
My conclusion was, that there was one thing that was more important than anything else; the love of making wonderful music, together.
The algorithm (formula for solving a problem) for the choir, was the music.
If mass media is to be believed, then it occurs to me that mankind better come up with a new algorithm for peaceful co-existence, because whatever algorithm we are currently using, is obviously not working.
But why care?
With everything going on all over the planet, what difference does it make if we care?
May I suggest that because of the ripple effect, and because the world is an interconnected system, it makes a difference when we care.
Expanding on Edmund Burke's words: "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing".
Evil?
Some of us don't adhere to that term. Okay, perhaps expressed differently: "All that is necessary for injustice to triumph, is for righteous people to do nothing." Or: "All that is necessary for indifference to triumph, is for people to not care." Or: "All that is necessary for apathy to triumph, is for people to abandon hope."
Have you heard of the Butterfly Effect? (The term not the movie) The Butterfly Effect is "the idea, used in chaos theory, that a very small difference in the initial state of a physical system can make a significant difference to the state at some later time ".
Put another way: A small change can end up being a big change.
Consider the "Power of One", some examples: Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, William Shakespeare, Socrates, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Marcus Aurelius, ......and so on.
"Never believe that a few caring people cannot change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have." (Margret Mead)
In the face of 24/7 reports of wars, atrocities, famines, poverty, crimes, natural disasters, et cetera
it can be tempting to apply the "It's all too much" algorithm, and according to research, human beings find it easier to become emotionally involved with the fate of one missing child in their own home town than 3.000 children in peril "somewhere over there".
Another algorithm is: "If I ignore it, it will go away."
(Climate change? What climate change?)
If we are not directly affected by natural disasters, economic down turns, pandemics, growing unrest and political upheavals, it is possible to ignore such....however, if the Butterfly Effect Theory is correct, then whether we like it or not, we will be affected.
The population on this planet consists of many "voices", but perhaps it would do all of us some good if we could find a way to put aside our many differences and started to focus more of our attention on what we have in common, and how we can create "harmony" rather than dissonance, together?
(About the image: The reason I have chosen to use bears rather than humans, is that I am cautious as to not offend any peoples. The bears are symbolic representations.)
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