I went to see Lord of the Rings tonight and saw a preview for The Butterfly Effect. It starred Ashton Kutcher, who could make himself go back in time to prevent the death of his girlfriend. Kinda like The Time Machine, really, except the scientist never hit someone over the head with a baseball bat and went to jail for it. Or banged Demi Moore, for that matter.
I don’t recall how it’s usually described, but the “butterfly effect” essentially means that a butterfly flapping its wings in Alaska can cause a hurricane in the tropics. I think it’s easier to understand as the “ripple effect”—drop a pebble into the water and the little circles move outward to effect the rest of the pond. That theory probably doesn’t cause any natural disasters, per se, but you get the idea.
So Ashton goes back in time, saves his girlfriend and he ends up in jail. So he goes back in time again, changes something else and she ends up bring a druggie in a motel. So he goes back in time again and ends up banging Demi Moore. No, wait, that wasn’t the preview, that was in the back of the theater. But whenever he does something differently, whenever something changes, it has effects later on—someone jumps into the water or the butterfly gets squashed and smeared across someone’s arm. No more causing avalanches in the Alps for you, ya little bastard….
Thus, the moral of the story is go see Lord of the Rings.
Okay, the real moral of the story is think about what you’re doing before you do it. If you’re going to do something rash, stupid, or act like your head is up your ass, remember that there’ll be consequences. Maybe not for you, but maybe for Ashton Kutcher’s cellmate. The same goes for doing something good, spiffy, or acting not quite like your head is up your ass: there could be happy days ahead for druggies in motels everywhere.
Hmmm… when I started writing this, I was initially thinking that by doing bad things, it’ll cause a ripple that’ll continue to do bad things for others—doing good things would make more good things happen. Then I remembered that butterflies aren’t inherently evil (or if they are, no one told me), but the “butterfly effect” can still make real nasty things happen someplace far, far away.
Thus, the moral of the story is go see Lord of the Rings.
No, no, it’s go bang Demi Moore.
[Sigh] Fine. Be that way.
Okay, lemme try something different by changing the perspective a bit: if you cause a tsunami in Japan by picking your nose, you’ll never know that it was all your fault. It’s like when you toss a pebble into a pond, the ripples get a lot smaller as they get further away from the source. Maybe they’ll plug up someone’s septic tank in another county, but who knows? Maybe that stupid kid with the Coke-bottle glasses and hairy palms did it by popping a zit next to the manhole cover across the street.
You’re only going to notice things that happen real close to you. If you act like an idiot, you’re going to embarrass the people who have to scrape your drunk ass off the floor, clean up the stain where you pissed on the carpet and wash your shirt because you puked all over it—you’ll never see the sad faces of the children in Taiwan who got paid two cents an hour to make that shirt for you. On the other hand, if you help someone out, if you smile at the right time, if you help an old lady across the street, she’ll hit you with her purse because you look like a mugger. Then other people will laugh at you and their day will have brightened a little more. If they’re happier, they can make other people happier and, if you’re lucky, the next old lady’s purse won’t be loaded up with quite as much spare change next time.
So go out there and think about what you’re doing just a little bit. Don’t bother sitting down and drawing out a treasure map to decide what’s the best way to act—someone else might find the map and take your happy day before you can get it—but at least consider what good you might accomplish if you try. Just a little bit. It doesn’t take much effort to make the world a better place for someone. If you need proof, consider Ashton Kutcher’s acting skills.
