Chaos Theory
Change is a constant. Sometimes it happens slower than we’d like, sometimes it happens faster than we can grasp, but embracing change – and some of the chaos that ensues – is part of embracing life as we continue to learn how to navigate it.
I think back to being a senior at Carleton College in 1969, and how we were going through a sort of revolution.
Back then men and women lived in separate facilities and would have an “open house” on a semi-regular basis where you could invite a male friend to the dorm for a half hour, but were required to keep the door open. There was also a curfew in place and there were big penalties for women who came in late, though the men rarely faced any such punishment. Now, we’re talking about adults, here.
Earlier in my collegiate career I had gotten involved with student government when I had the opportunity to be an assistant for the director of activities.
I was fortunate to have the chance to work with faculty and other students on all sorts of levels. So as seniors when we decided it was ludicrous that only the women were being punished for not meeting curfew, we simply refused to hand out penalties.
Change was in the wind. And in our willpower.
In the fall of ’69 it was grudgingly decided that we could have coed dorms. Each floor held a vote on it. All but one floor voted for coed dorms. Guess who was hired to be the R.A. on the one all-female floor?
It was a year of incredible change on campus.
Change and chaos. The Vietnam War was raging and the draft lotteries began. I remember we’d be watching and listening and waiting and every time they’d run through the numbers you’d hear a scream somewhere in the building. JFK had been assassinated years before. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated the year before. Two weeks before graduation the Kent State students had been shot.
Chaos had been a part of my life for a long time.
It’s hard, sometimes, to find your way through it. But you do. You keep your eyes open and you continue to learn, to draw strength and ideas and hope from all those around you, and from those who are different from you.
Whether it’s change or chaos or both, in my experience it’s always best navigated with compassion. With community.
*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.
0 Comments