Saturday 25 May 2013

Ripples


I sat watching Gavin throw rocks into a pond this afternoon.  The ripple flowing outward in concentric circles.  Getting larger.  Until they disappeared.

We are much like the rocks, falling randomly into the sea of humanity.  Yet over time our presence, our influence, spreads outward.  Getting larger.  Until we disappear.

I am not the only one who was influenced by Kurt, affected by his early passing.  Of course there was Gavin, influenced and affected even though he was too young to understand.  But as I watch life carry on around us, I realize more and more that others, too, are not the same person because Kurt met them.  In his 35 years, he spread his ripples wide....

We do not live in isolation.  We are a net creation of everything - and everyone - that we have touched or have, in some way, touched us....

It is a basic law of physics that energy is neither created nor destroyed.  The energy carried in the rock's movement is transfered to the water, causing the movement, the ripples.  But when the ripples have ceased, where did that energy go?  How has it changed the water around it?

In the same way, the legacy of a man is transferred to those around him.  Eventually, that man is no longer visible, the ripples of his existence fading and disappearing over time.  But those he has touched are not the same, and as each and every one of them go about their day to day, that legacy silently carries forward.  Even if you can no longer see it.

Just like the ripples on the pond....

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