Tangled lives of people – the ripple effect.

I saw this amazing film last night. Crash. I hadn’t really heard about this at the time it came out, so it was only when the mates were over that I even knew about its existence. The thing about this flick is that it is one of those very rare films where the people are the story, rather than it being a story with people in it. It’s very much the same style of writing as Magnolia, which I think is a little bit better known.

The thing that really impressed itself on me from the film is the way it depicted the interconnectedness of peoples lives. There were something like six unrelated groups of people in Crash, yet they each weave in and out of each others lives in circumstances that range from very mundane through to powerfully violent. Each encounter really forces you to think because there is much more under the surface of these individuals than you first see. While the theme of Crash is heavily focused on the issue of racism between different ethnic groups in LA, you can see how the message of “all is not what it seems” transcends that one place to anywhere in the world.

It started me thinking about all the lives that I touch, and those lives that in turn touch others lives, and how some of those lives actually come full circle back to me; like when you meet by total coincidence a friend of a friend at party or a shopping center. In Buddhism this interconnectedness is represented by a concept/fable called Indra’s Net.

There have been times in my life when I lie awake at night and wonder if I make a difference in the world. If my being here has any impact at all on any level. And a lot of times I would think, outside of my own very close group of friends, probably not. But of course when you think about it, we each make much more of an impact than we can really understand, because we can’t see how far the ripples flow outward along the streams of people that all connect together, beginning with us. Let me try to put it another way, when you’re someone like the Pope or U2 (for two completely off the wall examples), the ripples that they create reach outward in every direction across the whole world. Everyone knows who they are, and they have a forceful effect that can be felt by everyone to varying degrees. But with ordinary people who are not great spiritual leaders or mega rock stars, our ripple effect is much smaller.

Crash had me wondering about how much of a ripple effect I create in the world. Everyone (or nearly everyone) would like to feel that they make a difference in the world somehow, even just a very small one. This is important to us because we all want to feel needed on some level. It gives our lives a dimension of purpose. Otherwise what is the point to being here if nobody notices you or takes an interest in you. (But I begin to digress). Sometimes – most especially in the last two years – I have felt like I have been but a shadow in the world where my presence is barely registered by those around me. These have been very low times in my life, which generally coincided with times of bad depression and an overwhelming sense of lethargy and apathy. What I didn’t see – but am starting to understand now – is that even the barest of contact I had with only a few people had a strong effect on them, and made a perceptible difference in their lives, which in turn created an effect on the people they connected with. My point being, even those of us that have what could be considered a very small presence in the world still make strong ripples that are felt by others and affect others. In other words, we all make a difference, and we should never feel that we are just shadows in the world. So none of us should feel like we are ever just nothing. Perhaps it is a thought to hold on to when we sit in the very dark times of our lives, feeling very alone and very lost.

The only thing that really is in question, is whether our ripples spread out in a positive or negative way; what is the balance of our force in this world!

Padwanna.

PS – (I just couldn’t leave without saying this) I suppose really one of the reasons that I love to write is because I have felt the power of words in literature, and seen how it affects people. There is something compelling in writing stuff that stirs feeling inside of others. It’s very… powerful, like the feeling of lust. I can see now why great writers write!

The Tangled lives of people – the ripple effect. by Mentalechoes, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.