Butterfly Effect

This year I’ve seen a few more butterflies than usual.  Perhaps my butterfly bushes are finally working.  Here’s an article by Steve Heaslip recently published in the Cape Cod Times.

[begin] Perhaps you have heard of the “Butterfly Effect.” The theory refers to the concept that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the ocean can start a ripple of breeze that turns into hurricane on the other side of the ocean. A quick online search traces the scientific concept to mathematician Edward Lorenz whose research related the “effect” to chaos theory and weather prediction. The high level science of the theory is way above this photojournalist’s daily approach to assignments. But the idea that almost imperceptibly small changes we make can have big consequences really resonates. I’m not sure that a butterfly flying around off the western coast of Africa can send a major hurricane up the East Coast of the United States.

There are days where the simple act of making a left turn instead of a right yields major rewards. The simple choice of which road to take to the office can change the entire day’s outcome, good or bad. I was once told to drive a different route to work each day, simply because it offered up a daily change of scenery and staying out of the rut at all costs. As a mind game this thought process can quickly become immobilizing with too many choices and too much time spent pondering them. Best to be decisive and see what happens.

Most of the time it is not a conscious decision that brings a big photo reward; it is an external consequence that produces a photograph, which brings me back to the butterfly.

It is a slow news day on a hot muggy day. All attempts at finding interesting subject matter have failed. When this happens I turn to the natural world. This particular day I was staking out a butterfly bush in a meadow, waiting for action. The sweat was running down my neck and the insects were all somewhere else. Ready to throw in the towel, the phone rings with an urgent editor plea to drive to the other end of the Cape for a “quick” photo. While on the phone a butterfly came on scene. Phone in one hand, camera in the other, I was shooting and talking at the same time.

Maybe not what scientist Lorenz had in mind. Had the phone not rung, I was on my way back to the car, but I stayed to answer it. The butterfly effect in action. (end)

A black butterfly with blue spots (Limenitis arthemis) recently remained on my deck for about 30 minutes where it was flapping its wings.  At first, I thought it was black tiger swallowtail, but wrong.  It wasn’t on one side of the ocean and starting a ripple of breeze turning into hurricane on the other side of the ocean.  Nevertheless, it made me think about the “butterfly effect.”

Every day we make big and small decisions.  Each one sets us on a course and a chain of events that otherwise would not have occurred if we had decided differently.  A rather seemingly small choice can have a dramatic outcome.  

Consider this reference: In psychology, it [effect] can be defined as something that creates a bigger impact on the lives of people. Small thoughts can also lead to big changes. A single pebble thrown in the water can disrupt still water and create chronicles of ripples. Every creature impacts each other. If a creature dies, its off-springs will not take birth, which will again impact the ecosystem. Every single action of ours and every happening in this universe has an impact on something else. This term was popularized so much, that it has been introduced in literature. Many books and movies have incorporated the butterfly effect.

Let’s consider the number of abortions occurring each year in the U.S., about 620,000 in 2018.  Consider the number of COVID deaths, about 617,000 in 2020.  The similarity is startling.  All  of these “butterfly” deaths represent single pebbles that would have created untold ripples and impacts.  We will never know what might have been. 

Deacon David Pierce