Be the Butterfly Effect
Transform the world around you, one moment at a time
With that one literal foot in the door, maybe I changed a life for the better forever. That’s what I thought when walking off the subway one random Thursday morning.
Allow me to explain.
I’ve got about an hour and a half long commute each way to get to work each day in New York City. That is more than enough time in a steel tube with my fellow humans racing toward and away from the metropolis to develop a reasonably poor attitude and occasionally question one’s sanity. The second half of my journey is on the subway. The NYC subway system is a marvel of ingenuity, danger, sights, smells, and rats big enough to name individually. It’s a multi-cultural experience that both explains NYC in an instant and sets the perfect stage for this story about the Butterfly Effect and how the energy we share with others affects them and radiates forward amongst the chaos of chance encounters.
Because I’m a seasoned commuter, I always opt for the express to 14th street and either transfer to the local or just walk the rest of the way to the office from there. Thursday was a nice sunny day out, and with every intention of getting off at 14th and walking, I stepped onto the platform, and the local was just sitting right there. I was presented with a choice.
Follow the wind.
The local train was there for a reason; I’m always one to recognize when I’m being ushered around in the universe. I stepped onto the local train for two stops without a second thought. ‘Looks like we’re going subway all the way today.’ I thought. I stepped just a foot or so into my little doorway spot, and as I turned around, I was presented with the classic chance encounter. A woman ran towards the doors closing in front of me with a desperate look on her face. She was about 6 feet too late, by my estimation.
Leaving the negative aside for the moment because I’m not a confrontational or mean-spirited person, I was posed with a simple choice: stick my foot in the door to try to get it to reopen for her to get on, or just turn around and face my back to the door, going on about my morning.
Out comes the foot.
Black Converse shot out from my position at breakneck speed, the two-foot distance necessary to get between the doors before they could fully close. She looked up at me, a bit surprised I had sacrificed myself as I felt the subway doors slamming against my foot. She then shrugged a bit with a look as if to say, ‘Do you think they’re going to open the door?’ to which I offered a matching look on my face, shrugging and wondering what would happen next if they didn’t as I stood with my foot now firmly stuck in the door.
Success!
With her standing right at the door honoring my attempt at getting them to reopen it, the doors reopened all the way, and with a big smile, she jumped on past me and sat down. The transaction was over, and we never looked at each other after that point. With my headphones on and eyes down on my phone, I never even heard if she said anything. The look we shared was enough, momentary as it was. She was grateful, and I had altered her journey.
The butterfly’s wings flap.
We’ve all had moments when we chose to do something positive. Certainly, we’ve all had regretful moments when we’ve chosen to do something negative, and we’ve all had moments where we chose to do nothing. Generally speaking, in these chance encounters that are over in a brief moment, you never get to see or know what lasting effect, if any, your momentary transfer of energy had on the person you’ve encountered. We feed off each other’s positive or negative energy in big crowds, concerts, protests, dance clubs, and sporting events. These chance encounters are no different. What energy you present to other people is up to you.
I got off two stops later and will likely never see that person again. Honestly, I doubt I could have even picked her out at that point in a lineup. As I stepped off the train, I thought, ‘I wonder what comes out of that moment.’ It was just a chance encounter where I chose to do something positive. I inherently felt like I was on that train for a reason because it was presented to me when I had initially figured on walking. Did that cross my mind in the blink-of-an-eye decision I made? Maybe. Maybe it was inevitable that I’d feel safe to do it. Either way, where was she headed from where we encountered each other? She seemed very happy to get on the subway. Was this the difference between being late or on time for a job interview, a special date, to pick up her kid? What would her experience have been had she waited on that train platform for 5 more minutes? Would it have been a positive or negative experience? Was this encounter as simple as my positive energy transferring to her briefly, and is there no “how she got her dream job” end to that story? How long did that positive energy stay with her? Did she pay it forward and help someone up the stairs on her way back to the street because she was still grateful that some random person held the door for her to get on the subway? I’ll never know, but I do know that my action had a non-zero effect on that person, and sometimes that sets things in motion for something small and sometimes for something huge. It’s fun to think about the “Butterfly Effect,” where small actions can result in large effects. The more I think about the possibilities, the more I love that people interact all day all over the globe, and sometimes, those chance encounters are filled with positive energy that lasts, grows, and fills our society with optimism and hope.
What about you?
Who do you choose to be in those encounters? Do you want to create more positive energy in the world? The butterfly effect of how you conduct yourself could truly blow your mind if you could see it, but obviously none of us can. It’s a matter of faith that doing good leads to good. Is knowing that’s true enough to make you want to take the positive path more often in everyday encounters?