TURTLES AND BUTTERFLY WINGS

...............by Stanley

.....William James, (1842 – 1910) who features in our logo above, was the author of the classic Varieties of Religious Experience and was the first psychologist to tackle religion as a naturalistic subject. After one of his public lectures a lady approach him avowing that “the world stood on a turtle”. “Oh”, said James, “and what does the turtle stand on?” “Another turtle”, said the lady. “And what does that turtle stand on”, said James, hoping to show the lady the difficulties in such an infinite regression. “It’s no use, Mr James”, replied the lady, “its turtles all the way down”.
.....Intriguing isn’t it? It’s obvious that this lady was intelligent enough to see what James was getting at, but not smart enough for it to make any difference.
.....Little wonder really because the greatest philosophers have had the same problem. Aristotle was smart. He came up with the ‘Uncaused Cause’: a cause that started the world off, but was itself caused by nothing. Clever lad ! The Christian theologians following Aristotle cashed in on that little trick in a big way. God was a sort of transcendental turtle ! It’s all a question of how things get started, isn’t it? And also, once it gets started is it all meant to be from there on?
.....Our word ‘process’ is a tricky little number. We use it all the time: we talk of the client’s ‘process’, our own ‘process’, our ‘journey’. But it’s never quite clear whether our ‘process’ is the way we are ‘meant’ to go or the way we find ourselves going. For me, how the present has actually turned out is the one thing I never imagined.
.....James Hillman wrote an elegant work on what he called his ‘Acorn Theory’, basically saying that we each have a unique seed we are born with that gives us our life’s purpose. A sort of psychological turtle. It is an immensely attractive idea – the notion that our psychological purpose is to become who we ‘really’ are and who we were meant to be. When we look towards the future it helps to give validation to what we feel is right for us; and looking through a rear-view mirror at the past it is encouraging to feel that we had a destiny.
.....Yehudi Menuhin said that from an early age he knew he would be a violinist. But as someone pointed out to me, what if he’d been born in Ireland when there were only tin whistles?
.....What if there are no turtles propping us up. And it all turns out right, not because it’s our destiny, but because the present it has all led to feels so inevitably factual and difficult to imagine any other way.
.....But back down the track, what if things had been slightly different. If you hadn’t gone to the supermarket that day you wouldn’t have bumped into your old friend Joel whom you thought was still in the UK. Well, then you wouldn’t have gone to his birthday party where you met your present partner. Ah! What then?
.....And where would you be now – and who would you be now – if, instead of marrying your Dad your Mum had married that guy she was keen on who was going to live and work in Hong Kong.
.....On the whole, people don’t like the idea that one’s life is contingent in this way. One feels a little less significant; and it’s all a bit chancy. They prefer turtles, acorns, or angels who write the script; and maybe they have a point. Maybe if you imagine things that way – well, maybe that’s the way they are. Maybe such an encouraging view makes a real difference, whether it’s true or not.
.....According to Chaos Theory in physics a leaf falling in Australia can affect a hurricane in the Bahamas. It’s known as the ‘butterfly effect’. The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado halfway across the world. This kind of interaction means is that everything is connected with, and affects, everything. Another image that describes it is that of a marble balanced atop a hill, two steep downward curves on either side. The tiniest, smallest inclination one way, the breath of a butterfly’s wings, and the marble goes careering off down one slope rather than the other to an entirely different life.
.....Personally, I find some comfort in this idea. For me, the critic can’t get any traction on it – I mean, my raving-mad superego can’t say I’ve failed to live up to my potential. So I can say with a little confidence that I have done my best with what life has handed me.