Their exhibit consisted of assemblages of found objects. My children loved the sculptures, many of which were machines with billiard balls, nerf balls and ball bearings rolling along elaborate tracks.
The opening exhibit featured a bicyclist with a large headlight for, appropriately, his head, and a metal bicycle seat as his chest. Various other items are welded together to make this delightful creation.
As we took it all in, I asked my boys if they could figure out all the parts of the sculpture. Instead of identifying the individual parts, Joseph, six, said, "It's junk." Well, of course. But what a collection of junk!
Assemblages of "Junk," Chaos and Life
This experience brought to mind a book I've recently read and devoured, Seven Life Lessons of Chaos: Timeless Wisdom from the Science of Change. Sometimes, our lives seem defined as full of chaos and even junk. Not as dire as it may seem, however!
Just as fascinating sculptures can be made from "found objects," so, too, can fascinating lives be fashioned from events and circumstances that may seem chaotic.
Just ask John Briggs and David Peat, authors of Seven Life Lessons of Chaos. In a non-threatening-yet enlightening--way, these authors write about this emerging and still evolving theory, a baby by scientific standards at about 30 years old.
As a scientific term, chaos is the "underlying interconnectedness" in the apparent randomness of life. "Although we humans tend to abhor chaos and avoid it whenever possible, nature uses chaos in remarkable ways to create new entities, shape events, and hold the Universe together" (1).
Their seven life lessons include: being creative, using butterfly power, going with the flow, exploring what's between, seeing the art of the world, living within time, and rejoining the whole.
Through the seven lessons of the book, Briggs and Peat maintain that by understanding chaos, we can live a more meaningful, creative and peaceful life.
Meaningful Life
"Chaos theory, like the image of our incredible planet in space, offers us a perception and an associated conception of an interconnected world--a world organic, seamless, fluid: whole" (145).
The authors use chaos theory to explain the power of one, associated with nonviolence, as a means of change. Using the examples of the liberation of Eastern Europe and the American Civil Rights Movement, in which changes were precipitated by individuals, the power of subtle influence is explained. I found this idea to be especially hopeful in an increasingly global, corporate and sterile world.
