Nobody remembers chaos. Chaos is the universe’s norm. Pattern, structure, and harmony are the exceptions that reveal when something special is going on. In my daily meditation, I remind myself that harmony is being moved by another while moving them. This harmony is perhaps the highest and most beautiful evidence that human beings are extraordinary – that against incalculable odds the chaotic universe has given birth to its own antithesis. Against the backdrop of chaos, harmony is simultaneously beautiful and defiant. Can you think of anything more thoroughly human than that?
I love Susan Casey’s The Wave, an enchanting study of the mechanics and mystery of ocean waves from the unique-but-complementary perspectives of sailors, surfers, and scientists. She describes in one chapter how Hawaiian culture talks about the wave (singular) at a surf break, rather than the waves (plural). This way of talking about a surf break has been passed down from ancient predecessors who realized that all the crests breaking at a particular spot are the product of a single, unique, stationary entity, an entity which turns out to be (though perhaps the ancients did not quite understand this part) the topology of the ocean floor at that place. So, each place has recurring, known, and unique behaviors under various circumstances, which is to say each has its own way of responding to the energy of various swells. The Hawaiians characterize the whole of these behaviours as a persona: The Wave at a place has a personality and a name and a reputation, and we can have a relationship with it.
Maybe Hawaiians knew that people were like that, so treating The Wave like a person made sense. Perhaps they projected onto The Wave a concept that they understood from dealing with each other: when life happens to different people, each reacts differently — creating smooth or rugged; excellent or scary; or tubular or foamy ‘waves’ for the people around them. ‘When life hits Leilani from thus-and-such direction, she does this-and-that.’ When you see that actual men and women are defined by how each refracts, reflects, absorbs, and amplifies the energy in the swells of life, it makes sense to give a surf break a persona.
I think this is a wonderful way to look at ourselves, our lives, and our relationships. To paraphrase the bumper sticker, ‘Stuff happens.’ We all encounter in life thousands of different swells, in the energy pulses of challenges and opportunities and mysteries and other people. These swells hit us from every imaginable angle and height, touch every curve and cranny of our character, and reveal in the rebound the deep hidden contours of our being. As the ocean waves at a surf break reveal the structure of the ocean floor beneath, so too do the waves of life reveal a complex map of a person’s character as it is affected by and affects the vibrant world around them.
Consider the character of someone you admire. Describe their character in a few words. Now consider those words, and ask: are they manifest in a static environment (no swells) or in a dynamic environment (impacted by swells)? Words like trustworthy, tenacious, generous, and so on describe behavior in dynamic environments, when life sends challenging energy into that person’s life, and they make beautiful choices about how to channel that energy. A trustworthy friend, for example, takes on herself the inconvenient consequences of life’s curveballs, so that you do not have to experience the turbulence of her breaking a commitment to you. A tenacious friend fights like mad to save herself when hit by life’s rogue waves, so that you will not be put in harm’s way to save her. A generous friend gives up a bit of the abundance she has stored up for herself, so that you can enjoy the power of plenty even though luck has not gone your way lately. There are many other ways your friend could have shaped life’s energy badly, creating turbulence for you and the others around her. But you respect her because she reacted to those dynamic energy swells of life by channeling them into something smooth and beautiful. She is a nice wave.
Importantly, by her choices she inspires and attracts more nice waves. She initiates the harmony she desires with you. She cannot create harmony alone, but she boldly makes the first move. And you are drawn to her as a radical departure from chaos.
Static equilibrium is death; life is dynamic. The swells and their energy ARElife, not interruptions or disruptions in life. As they impact us, the swells of life reveal our character by how we use and reflect and refract and absorb and amplify their energy. The trick is to learn to channel more types of conditions into clean, smooth rides for others, rather than producing turmoil and turbulence. We all have good days and bad days, so it is not about perfection. It is about patterns. Look at your patterns: what kind of wave are you? You can allow the chaos of the universe to pass through you and crash onto others, or you can channel life’s chaotic energy into a beautiful wave for others. The latter is the path to harmony. A memorable wave. A wave with a name. Your name.
Article by More to Life Elder – Scott Davis Author of Surf the Seesaw and so much more.
Article published in More to Life – Edition 68
