| Be careful what you say and do - the ripples they | | | | (quote): |
| cause might be HUGE! | | | | "The message is that there are known knowns. |
| We all know that when you throw a stone into the | | | | These are things we know that we know. There are |
| centre of a pond, the ripples travel outwards to the | | | | known unknowns. That is to say there are things |
| sides, creating a pretty picture of circles as this | | | | that we now know we don't know. But there are |
| occurs. Throw several stones into the same pond | | | | also unknown unknowns, and these are the things |
| and we create a complex picture of ripples | | | | we do not know we don't know, and each year we |
| interacting together but all with the same aim of | | | | discover a few more of those unknown unknowns." |
| reaching as far out as they can. Ripples, of course, | | | | I was astounded! He was talking about the very |
| can travel thousands of miles as demonstrated by | | | | principle that I had been talking about for years - |
| some of the world's largest 'ripples' called Tsunamis. | | | | except that, because I provide examples in my |
| Many years ago in Australia in the early 1970s, I | | | | explanation, my explanation is probably more |
| attended one of those live-in weekend motivational | | | | understandable, whereas the jumbled words of |
| programs that you hear so much about nowadays. | | | | Rumsfeld is today a favorite on TV blooper |
| One of the things they taught me was the "Kicking | | | | programs. |
| the Cat Principle." I recollect that the story goes | | | | I am certainly not seeking any credit here for having |
| something like this: A business executive gets out of | | | | come up with this principle, because maybe I didn't. I |
| bed, the telephone rings and he gets a message that | | | | acknowledge that it's possible that someone else on |
| upsets him. On his way out of the door the cat rubs | | | | another part of the planet came up with it around |
| up against him, but he swears and gives it a kick. | | | | the same time or earlier. If you read the book |
| When he arrives at work he shouts at his secretary | | | | SuperNature by Dr Lyall Watson, you will understand |
| to get his Operations Manager. The Ops manager | | | | that this is not just possible, but actually very likely. |
| arrives and receives a barrage of anger. The Ops | | | | No, the point I am making is that I came up with a |
| manager in turn gets angry and when he gets back | | | | little principle in my business world in Perth Western |
| to his workplace, he berates one of the female | | | | Australia in the early 1980s and I talked about it a fair |
| Supervisors who then goes down to the shop floor | | | | bit. So, just imagine, for a moment, that if what |
| and blasts one of her staff. The staff member then | | | | came out of Donald Rumsfeld's mouth in 2002 |
| takes it out on the cleaner. The moral of the story | | | | actually DID originate from the principle I developed in |
| might be that in the bigger picture of things, might it | | | | the early 1980s, and that it had travelled through a |
| not have been better for the cleaner to go around | | | | myriad of 'ripples' to end up on Rumsfeld's lips two |
| to the business executives house earlier that day and | | | | decades later. |
| kick his cat, and then everything in between might | | | | "The Principle of Ripples" is quite profound, and I |
| never have happened. Ripples of anger definitely | | | | have tried to define it for you:- |
| travel quite far. Anyhow, I'm sure you get the | | | | The Principle of Ripples is: "That any thought, action, |
| picture. | | | | deed, word or image has the power to travel |
| As I was browsing the internet recently, I came | | | | immense distances through an ever-expanding |
| across a phrase on BobScarborough.net presumably | | | | ripple-effect, and is likely to grow, expand and |
| written by Bob Scarborough of Seattle, USA which | | | | influence outcomes far away from, and much larger |
| says: "I believe we never know how far the ripples | | | | than the initial starting point. |
| will reach when we toss a pebble of kindness into | | | | So what does this all mean? In your world, this |
| the pond of another's heart." Good words! In a movie | | | | means that it is possible that everything you do, |
| I watched recently (the name escapes me), Angelina | | | | think or say might have major consequences in the |
| Jolie said something similar, as she talked about how | | | | future far beyond your imagination. |
| things said thousands of years ago still have an | | | | So it's possible that if you stopped and helped the |
| impact in today's world, when she said: "You never | | | | little old lady over the road this morning, that your |
| know how far the ripples go." I also read on | | | | act of kindness gets mixed up in the huge stew pot |
| TheZenCenter.org that: "We never know how far | | | | called the Universe, and eventually might have |
| the ripples of compassion might reach with a | | | | enormous effects on all manner of things to come. |
| compassionate word, a kind gesture, a smile at a | | | | It's possible that if you stooped to pick up the piece |
| stranger. Allowing someone to merge on the road, | | | | of paper discarded by someone else and put it into |
| giving directions to someone lost, helping an older | | | | the rubbish bin, that somehow, good things might |
| person read the small print on a label at the store... | | | | happen to you at sometime in the near or far future. |
| who knows what ripples may flow out from and | | | | One argument, of course, could be that the |
| small kindness, and how far the ripples of kindness | | | | outcomes may not necessarily be good. They may |
| might go." | | | | be bad, too. |
| It seems apparent that even an expression on | | | | Now, I'm not very religious, although I do have quite |
| someone's face could cause enormous ripples across | | | | deep spiritual beliefs. I believe, for example, that |
| the whole planet as one person reacts to it and the | | | | there is something out there far beyond our |
| domino effect takes over, and creates repercussions | | | | comprehension that is controlling everything and |
| into the future. Of course, we have all heard of the | | | | 'watching' everything. It's not necessarily a God. It |
| story that it might be possible for a butterfly flapping | | | | could be 'beings' that are millions of years ahead of |
| its wings to cause an earthquake on the other side | | | | us in technology living on stars or planets trillions of |
| of the planet. The 2000 film "Pay It Forward" stirred | | | | years older than ours. Did you know that there are |
| quite a few minds when we are shown that our small | | | | 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 known stars out |
| acts of kindness can have huge impacts as the | | | | there beyond our own planet, and if life existed on |
| kindness is 'paid forward.' | | | | only one in a billion stars, then life exists on three |
| There's another principle, too, that is quite amazing: | | | | hundred billion stars out there. That's a fairly high |
| "The Six Degrees of Separation" principle which | | | | probability that we are not alone, don't you think? |
| states that we are only ever six people away from | | | | For many years, I have lived my life as if 'someone |
| knowing everyone on the planet. In other words, you | | | | out there' somewhere beyond our imaginations is |
| know someone, who knows someone, who knows | | | | videoing every single act, deed, thought or spoken |
| someone, and so it goes. This only has to happen six | | | | word in my life from birth to death. When I |
| times for you to make contact with the whole | | | | eventually leave this earthly plane, this 'person' will |
| planet. So if you wanted to get a private message | | | | meet me with a video screen and play back my |
| to the President of the United States, for example, in | | | | whole life in front of me - with a critique that goes |
| theory, you simply need to work out who the six | | | | something like this... |
| people are that stand in between you and the | | | | "You know that time you threw an empty coke can |
| President. | | | | out of your car window in 1971, when you thought |
| Around 1982, I came up with a little principle that I | | | | no-one was looking - well here it is, John! The man |
| developed in my own mind and that was "The | | | | who eventually picked up your discarded empty can |
| Principle of Knowingness." What I wrote was this: | | | | pulled a muscle in his back whilst picking it up, which |
| "Our brains contain three compartments of | | | | led him to drive his car erratically, and he had an |
| 'Knowingness'. The first compartment contains things | | | | accident on the way home and was killed. That's one |
| that 'you know that you know.' For example, you | | | | point you've lost, John!" |
| know how to ride a bicycle, tie your shoelaces, etc. | | | | "Remember the time in 1983 when you attended a |
| The second compartment contains things that 'you | | | | pool party in Australia, and you jumped into a |
| know that you don't know.' For example, you might | | | | swimming pool at the deep end where a little boy |
| not know how to perform brain surgery, but you | | | | was laying unconscious on the bottom after he fell in, |
| know that you don't know. The third compartment, | | | | and you saved his life whilst everyone else just |
| which is much bigger than the other two, contains | | | | stood around drunk - well he's now the Chief |
| things that 'you don't know that you don't know." In | | | | Executive of a large international institution that |
| the latter case, meaning things out there in the world | | | | provides aid to poor countries. That's two points |
| that you don't even know are out there to be | | | | you've earned, John!" |
| known." | | | | Hour after hour, I am shown every single aspect of |
| Around 2002, I switched on the television one day as | | | | my life, and at the end of the session, the person |
| saw Donald Rumsfeld give a USA Department of | | | | adds up the points, and I will leave it to your |
| Defense News Briefing where he said the following | | | | imagination as to what could happen next. |