The "Flutterby" Effect: Anecdotes and Antidotes

How To Keep Surviving All of This

From Lee Arnold’s “The Amazing Zoot and Algy”: Zoot reacts to the headlines and the general malaise of the world as only a “pooh” would - depressed and down. But Eulalia, the “flutterby” of spring, gives him the hint that something better, somehow, is possible - and that gets him going.

I’ve been enjoying Lee’s adorable little characters, Zoot and Algy , for months, but this recent post captured me after a particularly-intense group session.

Our newest group member had returned our attention to the horrors of our national crisis, and how it was hitting closely to home. The others were touched by his rawness. They felt compelled to revisit our global situation, as well as to connect with him by revisiting their own personal traumas.

Once again, we talked about the familiar battle between hope and despair. The push/pull of staying informed without going mad, the helpless question of what can we do. The weight of an insane world which echos the insanity that so many people have to cope with in their personal lives.

Along with the reminder of how this closely-knit space has become a genuine place of (relative) safety and hope.

Safety created by their courage to be vulnerable, to cry, as well as to challenge each other’s points of view. And to really listen.

Hope created by their mutual experiences of how they’re each changing in relation to each other.

I felt great about the session. At the same time, what I wrote on my “Substack ideas” notepad afterwards was this: “How are we living like this?”. I felt a pull to write about the despair.

Enter Zoot and Eulalia: From Lee’s post the following morning:

I’ve been wanting to revisit my April piece about the Butterfly Effect, but I wasn’t sure I really had much to add.

I’ve also been tired of my own “cheerleading” pieces, and figuring that others are probably tired of them too. My piece about Invisible Worlds, a weightier piece that doesn’t try to suger-coat, was received with such genuine appreciation that I felt compelled to keep going in that direction. I appreciated my own honesty as well.

But Lee made me smile for a moment. And in that moment, the Flutterby Effect was born. From a brief comic / cosmic message from across the seas, from someone I’ve never met. I felt compelled to try one more time to remind people that we’re not as powerless as we think we are.

At least not yet. We’re not yet at the point of Orwellian mind control that left 1984’s heroic figures void of joy, loyalty, and will. We are hurtling toward that place, and many people already are halfway there.

Fortunately, I keep seeing and feeling reminders that we’re not completely lost. That we still can have very powerful effects on each other, and that those effects can travel as far and wide as the horrendous images we’re trying not to see.

We can’t turn away from the images or the knowledge. Nor should we.

But we can choose how we use those impressions. For some of us that literally means getting more politically active. For others it can be organized civic engagement in local communities. (Many activists say this is actually the Holy Grail). For some, it can be as “simple” as taking care of our immediate others. And for the ones who are truly bereft of time or energy, it can “simply” be self-care.

I admit that I have a hard time letting go of my lifelong belief in broad , bold political activism. I have a hard time understanding why anyone would do nothing. I feel judgmental. Of others. Of myself for doing so little lately.

But that judgment isn’t helpful. For anyone. It doesn’t motivate anyone, and it doesn’t motivate myself.

What IS helpful is seeing and experiencing others caring for each other. It inspires me to do more.

The huge events like No King’s Day are amazing for that kind of boost. But they’re not everyday events. Smaller community gatherings like food distribution, postcard-writing, town halls can offer more frequent, more manageable and more sustainable efforts. I still urge everyone to log into www.indivisible.org .

I still believe that we’re not doing enough. A handful of people are. But most of us aren’t.

But I also believe that every single kind action has the potential to cascade into something larger. In fact, it’s kind of inevitable. The physics support this. We’re all quantum-entangled.

And if you can’t deal with physics, then here’s a great concrete reminder of how the Butterfly Effect works. From my initial piece a few months ago. From before I knew they are really called Flutterbies ;).

It’s an example that can be frightening AND empowering at the same time. I choose to look at it as empowering.

I recently watched a fantastic talk by Brian Klaas, author of “Fluke”.

The premise of Fluke is that we control nothing, but that we influence everything; the butterfly effect, born out of weather theory, is a concept that’s thrown around a lot, but Klaas argues that we don’t really take the phenomenon seriously enough. We write the effects of small , random changes out of the models when we make social predictions or explain history.

A particularly-poignant example he uses is about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The original targets of those bombs were Kyoto and Kokura. But due to one government official’s particular affinity to Kyoto (based on a beloved vacation decades earlier), Kyoto was spared, and replaced with Hiroshima. Kokura was spared simply because a passing cloud would have interfered with the radiation. Tragically unfortunate for Nagasaki.

That example blew me away. However scary it may be to feel dependent upon greedy world leaders and chaotic governments, we’re also at the mercy of a passing cloud.

The flip side is that we ALL make a huge difference, we’re all connected, and what each of us does right now is far more significant than we’re used to thinking it is.

So…To quote Lee again (or maybe Zoot) : “Just when you might think there’s nothing that can be done…you might just see or hear something, seemingly insignificant, yet it is something that sticks in your head, and…”

I’m not sure I have anything better than that to offer at this time. I hope we can find this helpful enough to keep us going.

In Solidarity and Peace