The Ripple Effect Is Real, And Simple As Fuck

Derek had an amazing weekend. Huge Leafs fan, and he had snagged tickets to the game Saturday night and watched his team stomp Ottawa.  Following the game he went out with his buddies and drank it up.

Sunday he spent with his girl.  They did brunch then went to the pumpkin farm. Had a great day roaming around, tasting some delicious bakery apple pie, and picked out a pumpkin for Halloween.  He managed to get home in time to catch Sunday Night Football.

Great weekend.

But now it’s Monday morning.  And Derek hates his job.  Dragging himself outta bed with the prospects of facing yet another long week of grueling mind numbing slugging. Coming off the high of his weekend, he’s in a bad mood now.

He pulls into the Timmie’s parking lot.  He’s going to be late, so he guns it, cuts Sally off and steals the spot she was going for.  Now Sally is frustrated.  Understandable.

Sally walks into Timmies, and the person ahead of her has a huge order.  Of course they’re buying coffee and donughts for their whole work team.  Well isn’t that nice of them… as Sally stands there and waits…

Finally it’s her turn.  It’s Monday morning at Timmies, so it’s busy and loud.  Melissa is having a hard time hearing Sally’s order and keys it in wrong. Frustrated Sally snaps at her “How hard is it to get my order right?”  This upsets Melissa. She’s doing her best.

Frank comes up to the cash next but he’s not sure what he wants so now Melissa snaps at him “there’s people waiting. What do you want?”

Well Frank didn’t need to be snapped at.  He’s just trying to order something before work.

Grabs his order and heads to work himself where he meets David by the water cooler. He complains about this and that. Not because it really bothers him, he’s just in a negative mood now.

David picks up on the conversation, because complaining is contagious.  And that carries on into his day.  Now nothing is right for David for the rest of the day. Until he gets home and his daughter had a bad mark on her math test.  So he grounds her.

Kids love to be grounded don’t they.  So now she acts out for the rest of the night.  Pisses her brother off.  Well he can’t take it out on her, he’ll get ground too.  So he goes to hockey practice and body checks Josh a little too hard into the boards.  Now Josh needs to go to the hospital.

Josh is in the hospital all because Derek needed that parking spot at Timmies first.

Cause and effect.  The ripple effect.  It’s real.  We are all responsible for the vibes we put out into the world.  But much like the stone sitting at the bottom of the pond has no idea that the ripples from it plunking into the pond in the first place have caused a stick to dislodge from the pond’s edge, a stick that an ant had been on, and is now stuck in the middle of the pond, destined to drown, we have no idea where the ripples of our own actions will wind up.

Just as easily as stealing a parking spot could wind Josh up in the hospital, a kind word or smile at Samantha for whom you held the door for could wind up in the cure for cancer.

We are not islands.  We are all connected.  Everything is connected.  It’s not always easy to see or track, but we are all part of everything.  Be it good, or be it bad.  We are all connected.

What do you want your contribution to the world to be?

It doesn’t take much to make a big difference. And we will never know the impact our actions have on others, and by extension, the world.  But I know I want mine to be a positive one.

I’m going to try to remember to smile and say thank you to Melissa even after she snaps at me.  Who knows, maybe I can break the chain and save Josh from going to the hospital.  And I sure as hell want to help cure cancer, so I’m going to try to take the 5 seconds it takes to hold the fucking door for Samantha.

We aren’t perfect. And sometimes it takes a lot of conscious thought to make a difference.  We could be in the worst mood ourselves.  But if we stop and think first… maybe just maybe we can be better.

And all it needs to take is a smile and holding a door.  Anyone can do that.  It’s easy as fuck.