Heroes Not Zombies

This half frosted leaf reminds me of the yin yang symbol. About half is white with frost and half is coloured brown. The white half has an area of brown in it and the brown half has an area of white. OK, I know, it’s not the same shape as the traditional yin yang symbol but, still, it captures the same essence I think.

This, for me, is a symbol of transition. We are at that time of the year where one season recedes and another emerges. It’s not that winter has gone completely, and it’s not that spring has quite set in.

Transition is a time of emergence. It’s where whatever exists is in the process of becoming something else. I only discovered this term, “emergence”, a few years ago, but it has been one of the most useful concepts I’ve ever encountered. Emergence describes change in complex systems. The thing is, complex systems are “non-linear”. They aren’t like machines. They don’t change predictably step by step. Because complex systems (like the human being, like all living creatures, like Life, like the living planet, like reality) are non-linear and “open” ie embedded within other systems with constant flows of molecules, energy and information between and through them……then they change in this very different way, which has been called “emergent” – looking back you realise you couldn’t have predicted what they become from how they were! Even if you knew ALL the conditions today, you could NOT predict accurately how a complex system will change.

All that might seem a bit frustrating. I mean, it would be great if we could just gather the “data” and the “evidence” and know for sure how things were going to change. But we can’t. That’s the delusion of the positivist, technocratic world view, the kind of view which claims to know with certainty exactly what “will work”, and only later to realise that it didn’t. In fact, for me, it’s the delusional view which I find most frustrating. I can’t stand the constant pushing of the next “silver bullet”, the next “quick fix”.

I find it liberating to acknowledge and accept the reality of complexity and emergence. It brings several things with it. It demands humility. It requires me to keep an open mind at all times, to remain aware and conscious of the here and now…..just as that here and now constantly comes into being. There’s something exciting and ALIVE about transition and emergence – do you see that phrase I have at the top of my blog?

“Becoming not being”.

I choose that to keep my focus on change, on emergence, on transition, on the everyday, as the everyday unfolds. It brings me my abundant experiences of wonder, awe and delight. It brings me joy.

Final thought for today – transition, the yin yang concept, the idea of emergence – these all fit beautifully with the scientific, rational, and philosophical understanding of complexity – complex systems which are open, non-linear and massively inter-connected. That demands that we always consider contexts, connections, relationships and environments. It shifts us away from the delusion of a world made up of separate unconnected pieces, and brings us face to face with the reality of holism. The whole is always more than, is always different from, the sum of the parts.