Just A Little Chaos

Chaos is an essen­tial ingre­di­ent in cre­ation. There is some­thing about bring­ing diver­gent ele­ments into line that make for great art. It is also the way the Gen­e­sis account begins. Believe it or not, it is a very nec­es­sary part of your exis­tence. Freud said we have and “Id” (a word he made up). It is the part of our mind that cranks out all sorts of crazy stuff non-stop. From it we choose what is real and what is not. With­out it, we would sit around in a stu­por (a close rel­a­tive of “stupid”).

Some peo­ple have a lot of inner chaos. Those that man­age it best write movies, plays, ser­mons, and music. Those fear­ing it spend a lot of time on the psychiatrist’s couch. What is it about own inner impulses that we want to con­trol — only to dis­cover that doing so takes all of the fun out life?

Me? Well, I have a lot of Id — lots of inner chaos that presents almost end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties every sec­ond of my wak­ing and sleep­ing life. I con­sider it a bless­ing. That much chaos gives me a lot of raw mate­r­ial with which to work. The humor alone is worth the inner mind-storm.

Oppres­sive gov­ern­ments take their cue from the fear of poten­tial chaos. Iron­i­cally, the more restraints they impose the more the energy goes inward. In other words, peo­ple may become out­wardly con­form­ing, but their hearts and minds are entirely some­where else. In the end, those gov­ern­ments fail. By try­ing to remove mild chaos, they kill cre­ativ­ity and ingenuity.

I spoke with a math pro­fes­sor once that said that even chaos has pat­tern. Maybe God’s fin­ger­prints are in places we least sus­pect. Let a lit­tle chaos into your life and see if you are not more alive from hav­ing done so. If you need help, give me a call.