Be a Light!

Once upon a time, I was in a horrible job as a security guard at a steel mill. The workers hated the guards. My wife would tell me every day before work,  "Be a light!" I thought the suggestion was stupidly naive, but I made a bit of effort in that direction every day. Initially, workers would scream and cuss at us, throw rocks and pieces of metal at us, or drop things from overhead bridges. To make matters worse, the pay sucked.

So, every day, I asked myself, "How the f**k can I be a light here?" Acting nice didn't have much effect. So, I didn't bother "acting nice." I did however cultivate a deep feeling of goodwill toward the workers, despite continuing to act tough and somewhat aloof. Ever so gradually, things changed. Workers started nodding to me and other guards, and sometimes made a little conversation. It took more than a year, but the workers and guards mostly got along. There was no more rock and metal throwing, or overpass ambushes. I ended up missing the place when I left!

Imagine a single electron being nudged away from an atom, then it enters the orbit of another, with a slight spark of energy released, and the spark displaces a couple more electrons, or even fractures an atom or two. Then each of these disturbed atoms exchange energy with a few more, leading to an exponential increase of atomic interaction, till BOOM! A bomb explodes.

Now, imagine a single thought, shared with one or two other people, who in turn share it with a few more, and an exponential growth of an idea occurs. In society, this process occurs so often that we usually don't consider the actual sequence of interactions that lead to the "explosive" manifestation of a new idea. It's easy not to notice when all of this occurs within the synapses of our grey matter.

Like the "shot that was heard around the world," a single positive thought or interaction, or refusal to turn sour in response to a sourpuss, has the power to change the course of history.

So, regardless of what's observed in the world, "be a Light!"