When we consider the world of science — that of definite and objective matter — we can be break it down into it’s most fundamental building blocks: molecules, atoms etc. An even more primative world which it’s understandings predate that of the world of science, is the world of experience. Before the building blocks of reality were discovered, history was made up of drama and lived experience, manifested by each moment in an ensemble of thought. Much like the scientific world, the world of experience is made up of fundamental building blocks as well: order and chaos.
Order & Chaos
Chaos is most aptly described as unexplored territory. It is the unknown which extends infinitely out in every direction. It is where we are when we don’t know where we are and what we are doing when we don’t know what we are doing. It is everything we neither know nor understand.
Order is explored territory. It is the structure and norms of society. The warm, secure living room with a glowing fire. When the bus arrives on time. It is the plan for the day, the calendar, the clock, the value of currency and it is democracy. When everything is understood and certain, we are within the realms of order.
Order is your morning routine everyday. It is when you’re sitting around a table of family or friends. Order is The Shire in Tolkien’s books and it is warm Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. Chaos is when you get on the wrong bus, or when you are suddenly let go from your job. It is when you find yourself betrayed or sold out. Chaos is Smaug’s usurped kingdom and the shrouded man in the corner of the Hog’s Head. Within every lived experience is a configuration of both chaos and order. To live in total order might seem nice. A warm fire, complete protection, but this is not enough. By doing so, you forgo the opportunity to become competent, and resilient.
It is far better to render Beings in your care as competent then to protect them — Jordan Peterson
If we are to have one foot in the security and care of order and the other in the possibility and adventure of chaos we are to rescind the comfort of complete protection. To be fully protected from negative and threatening influences is to render yourself as useless and incompetent. In complete order you don’t have to think, you merely do. Strength over safety is to choose to become conscious, and strive to become able.
Ask yourself these questions:
If required, would you administer a careful routine of medication for your childhood pet to keep it alive?
In the past, have you, to the best of your ability, taken care of yourself when you have been ill?
Why is it that we fall short of full commitment to our own care?
One theory, is that when we walk the line of order and chaos we reveal our terrible and vulnerable nature. We are so painfully aware of our defenselessness and mortality, and our ability to exploit the vulnerabilities of others. After all, no one is more acutely aware of our own shortfalls then we are, and who would want to look after someone as shameful, useless and imperfect as you? Burdened by the consciousness of our faults, and our capacity to do terrible evil, we fail to hold ourselves of any value, and you cannot care for something you do not value.
It is impossible to find anyone who isn’t either endowed with limitations, face shortfalls, who suffer from disease, the state, their circumstances or their own mind. Yet these people manage to continue to do difficult and effortful tasks, and shoulder the responsibility of setting and maintaining the order of the world. There are a million things that can go wrong, and yet all the pieces of society which are falling apart, are being held together by people no less broken then yourself.
What might my life look like if I were caring for myself properly?
This is a life where you have respect for yourself. You might even consider finding the strength to care for yourself in the same way that you care for others. You might even reconfigure your habits and decisions in a way where you actually go to bat for yourself. You might even shoulder growth and the weight of aiming upwards, and join the group of those whom not just are holding the world together, but who create and discover and wager with the present in exchange for a better future.
By standing on the line which separates order and chaos we reveal all of our limitations. Why should that then mean that we are not worthy of our own care?
Just Something To Consider
🔗 Sources
This entry is inspired by Rule 2 of:
Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote for Chaos
and it will not be the last…