The Butterfly Effect

“You have been created in order that you might make a difference. You have within you the power to change the world.” Andy Andrews, “The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters”

When I found out yesterday that Ortanique, one of my favorite restaurants, would be closing its doors because they could not survive the economic crisis created by Covid-19, I was very affected. “Who will be next?”I asked myself. “Caffe Abbracci? Joe’s Stone Crab?”

Today, the priest mentioned in his homily “the butterfly effect” which in summary is the idea that small things can have an impact on a complex system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil and causing a tornado in Texas. Of course, a single act like the butterfly flapping its wings cannot cause a tornado. Small events can, however, serve as catalysts that act on causing catastrophic conditions.

Benjamin Franklin offered a poetic perspective, long before the identification of the butterfly effect:

“For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe the horse was lost,

For want of a horse the rider was lost,

For want of a rider the battle was lost,

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”

The lack of one horseshoe nail could be inconsequential, or it could indirectly cause the loss of a war. There is no way to predict which outcome will occur.

We don’t really know how the Covid-19 virus began. There are lots of theories out there. My favorite is that it started in a lab in China, and a cleaning worker who had no food to offer his family stole a bat from the lab that had been infected with the virus. He took it home, fed his family, and sold the remains in the village market. And thus, the virus was spread first to their neighborhood, then to their city, then to their country, and eventually, to the entire world. And like the butterfly effect, a bat from China had a catastrophic effect on the entire world.

But just like one bad action can cause destruction, one good action can have a ripple effect that can repair the damage. Yes, we have a virus from China that has caused much destruction, but this has also caused an opposite reaction. Many people have come forward to help our community. Camillus House has a program called “Casserole Out of Kindness” in which individuals, religious groups and other organizations are invited to provide nutritious meals to the hungry and/or homeless in our community. Recently, a student from Belen was shown on Instagram making a meal from his home to donate to this program. The Key Clubhouse of Miami had to close its doors during the pandemic, which meant that many of its members would not be able to have access to a daily meal or to transportation to be able to go buy what they needed from a grocery store. Many came forward to donate food to its members, including my Belen Emmaus sisters. All I had to do was send a text to a few, and this caused such a ripple effect that we filled up their entire van with groceries.

The boycott to the Goya products caused the opposite reaction for many and they started a buycott. Many people started buying Goya products to donate to Food Banks around the country. One of these generous persons is Jack Fleming, a 14-year-old who has autism. He wrote on his Facebook page: “I used my money and my parents gave me money to buy lots of Goya stuff and donate it to food pantries. Because I am an American and I love Americans and guess what, I don't care if this food feeds democrats or republicans. We are all American and that is what should matter.” Yes, just like there’s destruction, there is also reparation and restoration.

Next weekend, we celebrate the feast of St. Anne, our Lady’s mother. I am praying a novena to her asking her to intercede for our country and our world. Today’s prayer went like this:

“O St. Anne, you are my spiritual grandmother. Please pray for me! 

I come to you today asking that you pray for me to see God’s goodness in my life, just the way that it is. 

It is easy for me to forget about the blessings that do exist in my life while I pray for another one. 

It is easy for me to forget about the beauty that does exist in my life while I focus on what is lacking.

Instead, I ask you to please pray for me today that I may be present in each moment, and that I may be open to seeing God’s goodness, beauty, and loving hand in my day -- just as it is.

Please pray that I may be able to live in the present, and not to dwell on the past or the future.”

Yes, in the midst of these difficult times, I may be more inclined to focus on the negative rather than the positive. It may be easier to cry about what I have lost instead of concentrating on the blessings that I receive from God each and every day. I may want to cry over those restaurants that are closing without thinking that there were many before them that I used to love too and they closed for different reasons, like Crepe St. Michel, Le Festival, Rogers on the Green, Whiffenpoof or Chef Allen. And from their ashes, many good new restaurants emerged. So yes, we are losing some very good restaurants like Ortanique, but there will be others that will emerge out of their ashes. When one door closes, another one opens, so we must keep life moving forward spreading kindness everywhere we go. One little action today may make our world a much better place tomorrow. 

Copyright © 2020 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.