Time flies—six years, in fact, since my last post. Whew! While this writing platform enjoyed an extended hibernation period, my brain and body lived in a perpetual state of summer. I’ve been gifted meaningful and challenging work across the globe in a number of gender equality- and reproductive health-related initiatives, expanding my appreciation for the beauty of humanity and our planet.
And today my ‘state of summer’ begins its symbolic transition into autumn. I find myself breathing in the crisp air of this unfathomable week, bristling against a reality that feels too harsh, too cold.
All the goings on in our midst remind me of Margaret Wheatley’s well-crafted words:
The world appears incomprehensible, chaotic, lacking rationality. We respond to this incoherence by applying old solutions more frantically. We become more rigid about our beliefs. We rely on habit rather than creating new responses. We end up feeling frustrated, exhausted and powerless in the face of so much failure. These frustrations and fears create more aggression. We try to make things work by using brute force rather than intelligence and collaboration.[1]
Not that last week’s world was any less chaotic than this one. Wars, wildfires, and witch-hunts ravaged all corners of the earth, even then. Yet now the amount of certainty in our environment, degree of agreement among groups, and extent of knowledge and capacities shared has all plummeted overnight. Or so it appears.
And this is where I pause. Perception is not reality. Nor is chaos the final word. Allow me to tease out these concepts a bit.
Perception: Despite remarkable advances in science, excellence in the arts, and dedication to theology, we can still only approximate the fullness of reality. As the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, “For now we see in a mirror, darkly…now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as I am fully known.”[2] Krista Tippett of On Being speaks of deep truths and deep time.[3] Deep truths, according to the Nobel physicist Frank Wilzcek, cannot be reduced to facts, and these experiences of deep knowing are by nature non-dualistic (i.e., opposites can be true at the same time). Deep time refers to the long arch of the universe, of which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke. While we feel embedded in this moment in time, there is a grander story in which we live and move and have our being.
We can see only a sliver of the whole, which humbles me and gives me hope. Perhaps there is more than meets the eye. I’m emboldened to look for it! And maybe by shifting my perspective, I can shift my perception. (More on perspective in a future post….)
Chaos: Traditional leadership models aim to create structure, control, safety, and predictability. Yet we live in a dynamic world that exists in a constant state of chaos. What, then, is our response when we hunger for order? Quantum physicists speak about chaos as a dynamic system of its own, able to self-organize in the midst of complexity. Think of organizing as a means of achieving order. It’s a fascinating concept: When left alone, a complex system will transform from disorder to order, naturally.
I personally find it easy to respond to chaos with fear. Chaos theorists posit, though, that there is remarkable potential in the world if we can become comfortable with (i.e., not afraid of) complexity. By embracing—rather than resisting—uncertainty in complexity, we can flow with the system as it self-organizes. By releasing control, we allow something altogether different to emerge, an unexpected order out of disorder. Though counter-intuitive, it’s perhaps more logical than expecting fear to bring about order of any kind. (note to self!)
The intersection of perception and chaos raises big questions for me. I wonder if order that diffuses from a complex system can ever be good. Can perception alter the outcome? Or are we destined to frustration and futility, as in the old system that Wheatley spelled out above? Our tendency is to brace for the worst, but can the process of self-organizing be influenced by hope, such that what emerges is better than expected, and maybe even wonderful? I have a hunch—based on my work in Appreciative Inquiry and strengths-based principles—that perception can influence the chaotic reordering of things. Will you journey with me to find out? Perhaps all it takes is a belief in deep truth, the expectation of a grander story, and a deep time gaze to call forth something that is altogether unexpected and lovely.
Autumn is, in fact, beautiful.
[1] Wheatley, Margaret. Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 2011.
[2] 1 Corinthians 13:12
[3] From The Pause, a weekly On Being newsletter, January 25, 2025