Ripple Effect

With a lot of the recent posts I have read here lately it reminds me of a phrase "ripple effect". I looked up this phrase and one definition seemed to fit a lot of the posts in this section.

Ripple Effect: In sociology, it can be observed how social interactions can affect situations not directly related to the initial interaction. What I have been seeing is a negative trend in the ripple effect of these posts. Since we all need balance in our lives I thought I would offer a more positive "ripple effect".

One of my closest friends husband created a non-profit organization that helps the villages in Guatemala help them selves. The name of the non-profit is The Ripple Effect Inc and you can learn about it at his blog website http://therippleeffectinc.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=1 They are a family of deep faith and I pray for his safety when he travels because there are a lot of unfriendly areas he travels to to help these villages.

This a one of my favorite quotes from his website, "The opposite of faith is apathy. We are on a one way journey threw this life and I hope, given the chance to look back over mine that I am happy with the tracks I have made. The Question is not will we make a difference but what difference will we make." Something we should all think about, what kind of tracks have you left here.

 

The definition seems to describe a lot of our conversations on this web site. The intention of the original poster is not usually to incite the responder although sometimes, ya gotta admit, there's a little tweaking going on in the beginning even.

They all eventlally die down because there's never a non ending supply of firewood to keep them going. I notice a little humour is injested by some to try to calm things down when it gets too crazy. Some of the best stuff is coming out right now. I've been searching around a bit and haven't really seen the attacks that were rampant for a while there.

Not to say that people aren't disagreeing but they are doing so respectfully - for now anyway and I'll take now if I can get it. =~)

"The question is not will we make a difference but what difference will we make".

I like it. It's a good thing to ponder for those of us who are tilted towards making a difference in the world. I just want to make sure I'm the best person I can be. I'm not worried about changing the world - that's gonna happen without my help. I've left a legacy and that is enough for me. My son and grandchildren, if we could consider that the difference I will make I'll be satisfied with that. Have you pondered this question for your life?

 

A most excellant Post.
What difference will we make. I like it!

 

Hmmm. I guess the answer to that question cannot come from me. It will be decided by others.

 

Regarding Holly's question, and Nwspin's subject matter, has anyone ever thought of the effects of their life on this world, trying to imagine what it might be like if one had never been born? This is the Jimmy Stewart question from the Christmas classic, "A Wonderful Life."

But just for an example, if not for me, my nieces would never have been born. Don't take me wrong with that! But it was through me that my BIL and SIL met. So that meeting had a ripple effect. It brought life into the world. And I can always say in good conscience to my lovely nieces, that they owe me their lives! What this really translates to is that, they have to take care of me in my old age! We'll see if that happens. I just hope that when and if it occurs, I will still be "in sound mind" in case I have to make a few changes to my bequeaths.

 

Sometimes we make a difference, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we don't even know what our 'impact' is. But when we intend to do good and we see a good result, that is a happy day.

 

The only differences I might have made that count for anything are tiny little efforts to alleviate suffering mental and physical. That's enough I guess.

 

Sometimes laughter and sometimes a little drama can both help us forget about our physical and emotional problems going on outside of this site.

 

The ripple effect - it can happen in so many ways, both within people and with nature. I think nature makes the biggest ripple effect. I remember - I think it was Hank - on a different site quoting something about Jesus being here intil the end of the age. My first thought was the ice age and the dinasour age. I wonder what we'll be called when our 'age' comes? What cataclysmic thing will happen that knocks us off the books and into an 'end of age' and beginning of another? Whoops, I think I just took us back to the God question...

 

"Nature bats last".

 

So, Sarita, this kinda of supports your previous statement doesn't it? Maybe I read it wrong - nope, I'm reading that you believe the collective (meaning us as a race of humans) can and probably will cause the cataclysmic event that will be the end of us. Am I reading you right? It does make perfect sense if you look around and see what is happening. But what would have caused the ice age to come to an end or the dinasour age - do you think? It wasn't something they did or was done as a collective effort or do you believe it was?

 

Sarita, you really know how to make a girl smile, uh, boys too I'm sure... thanks.

 

OK, the night (if it was night) that you were conceived (well, it's always night somewhere), if by chance, dad hadn't gotten home 'til after mom went to bed, and it didn't happen that night, when you were later conceived, would you have ended up somebody else, maybe even with different parents? What makes you inside of you and not inside of somebody else? How come your conscousness just happens to look out of your body's eyes instead of someone else's? See from my perspective, its all the same. You could have been the consciousness looking out of anybody's eyes and I wouldn't know the difference. But I would know the difference with respect to me, looking out of these eyes or someone else's. So how can you know that you are really you, and not somebody else. I can't tell any difference from where I stand. But for just dumb luck, you could have ended up in Holly's body looking out of Holly's eyes instead of Holly. ANd Holly coud have ended up looking out of somebody else's eyes, or maybe never have been conceived at all! And I could have ended up INS, looking out of INS's eyes. I mean really, if dad had gotten home late that night, might you ended up the baby down the street?

And I hate to sound crass, but this conversation does usher in a sort of philosophical question of the digestive system. We might need Jim for this one. Here is: If a guy needs to fart, and he somehow holds it back, but in a couple of hours farts, was that fart he farted the same fart he would have farted before, if he had farted at the time? Or is the first fart gone forever to the fart grave yard and another fart takes its place? There must be an answer to this. And if we can discover that answer, then we are largely on the way to understanding our own identity.

 

;D ;D ;D

 

Sariata, You have an impact, if nothing else on this forum. Any strong personality will have an impact. I believe you have a very strong personality, one of many on this page. I admire all of you because a strong personality is something I just don't have. But I believe that We all bring something to the collective and casue ripples. The only way that anyone can bring to this forum what YOU bring would be for them to have had exactly the same personality and experiences that make you you. there might someone that would argue the same points that you do, put would they do it in a way that I believe that you are and causing the ripples that you cause, I don't think so. If nothing else you and Hank make the discussions interesting. I believe that each individual brings something to the whole, it is just a matter of how much they bring. Hitler would be an example. To me, one of the most intersting people of history and I am not comparing you to Hitler. He is an example to make my point. He was an individual that had impact he caused ripples that I believe that are still rippling to some degree today. I do not believe that if it had not been him there would have been another. There are two many factors that would have to be just right for Nazi Germany to have happened the way that it did or to every happen again. The things that made him up, personality, environment, life experience made him who he was and caused him to do the things that he did. Germany was ready for him, and the person that he was, at the exact time that he was there. so back to the original question the ripple effect and can we make a difference. I believe yes we can to both. Very interesting post. My hats off to nwspin.

 

Just because I have an interest in all things scatological doesn't mean I have a firm grip on understandiing the scientific aspects of effluvia. Thanks for thinking of me though. I believe the answer is the original fart is gone forever; however, some of the original constituents of the first fart (some of the molecules in the reaction that produced the gas) may still be there. You are correct, I believe. If we really knew the answer with certainty, we would be well on our way to a better understanding of our identity and the human condition in general.

 

With all the good feelings being passed around on this thread, perhaps it's time for a "group fart"??

 

But Jim, the identity of the fart, may not be the fart itself, nor the natural effect of the fart, that effect that generally comes wafting through the air, but rather the fart spirit. The same, I expect, can be said about the spiritual identity of humans, or of all things. And although I demonstrate the point using things scatological (there's another term I must now use 7 times, well 6 more times before it is mine...thx for that), the point is that there is likely an identity associated within the natural body, that is independant of the natural body. Sarita says that identity is part of the natural body. If that were so, why is Sarita housed within that particular natural body and not someone else? What is it that creates one individual, discrete vantage point, inside of one natural body, that has a personality, a set of inclinations, intelligence and motivations, all of which are separate and apart from the basic need for self-preservation of that body ?

Inside of any airplane in the sky is a pilot. That plane goes where the pilot tells it. It responds to the pilot's intentions. So with respect to the airplane, the pilot is the spirit, the guiding life force, the identity housed within the natural body of the plane. But when that pilot goes off duty, another comes on; the plane heads back up int the air, but guided by a different spirit. How can we be so sure, that this same model is not the model that very accurately depicts how our identities differ from one another? For the life of me, I cannot reconcile how it is that my identity is looking out of my particular set of eyes instead of yours. Why are you looking out of your eyes rather than, say, June's? or Queen Elizabeth's? There is an identity, a spiritual identity that makes me, me, and you, you. It would be different if say, I did not exist. If I did not have a particular vantage point from which to notice these things, then I could not declare that the spirit exists. But I do, and these eyes are those out of which, for whatever reason, I have my vantage point on the natural world. Given this truth that we can all agree upon, how can any of us deny the possibility that housed within our natural bodies, just like house within the airplane, there is a pilot, a spirit, conducting the levers?

Sarita says that it would not matter if she ever lived or not, that whatever function she provides in this world would be provided by someone else. That being the case, the role of Martin Luther Ling, Jr. would have eventually been played by someone other than him. Yet, because MLK played it when he did, the world changed inexorably from that moment. We are all different in some way because of his life. I do not believe the contrary can be argued successfully. Well, something about the man had certain uniqueness then. He had certain talents and motivations unlike mine or yours, unlike anyone else's. But he had a body that could have been anyone's. So what is the difference and how can any of us claim that there are no lasting differences, no mark on this world that any of us make while we are here?

 

Not always unfortunately. Ever seen Air Crash Investigation?

 

Hey, we all make mistakes. Ever fall down a set of stairs?