Brett’s Laws of Stuff: From Stardust to Kindness
Photo by Philippe Donn
Go with me on a journey (hang in there, as this one will test your loyalty …).
I heard the tail end of an interview on the radio yesterday where a notable comedian from Pakistan suggested we share meals with each other—highlighting our heritage’s food—as a way of embracing our differences. It got me thinking.
Nothing I say here is true, but see if you can fit it into your view of life.
Hypothesis: Everything we need to know is there in any physical thing.
Pick any item in or out of your house, animate or inanimate, and let’s make a bunch of fun assumptions. Everything there is to know—all knowledge in the universe—is in there. Each thing, of any size or mass, has the blueprint not just of life as we know it, but of the universe… as it is, as it was, and as it will ever be, and that includes time.
I’m not saying we know how to access it, but it’s in there. This information is in your golf clubs. It’s in your shoes, an apple, your socks… It’s in the desk I’m typing on right now.
“We are stardust, we are golden. We are billion-year-old carbon.” — Joni Mitchell
We’re all made of the same stuff. As far as we know, there are 94 (maybe 92?) naturally occurring elements in the universe, so we are limited to 94 ingredients to work with against the infinity of space that contains them. But each of these ingredients shares this genetic code.
Brett’s First Law of Stuff:
Each particle of the universe contains all possible knowledge. Every detail of this universal history—from the Big Bang to the predictable end of the universe—is contained in the particles of any object.
If the universe is indeed expanding, someday it will stop and begin contracting. Then someday it will contract to the singularity it once was 13.8 billion years ago. That includes events that haven’t even happened yet.
Yes, so if we could hyper-analyze a rock, a leaf, a forgotten stuffed animal under the couch, I’m supposing the design of everything in all dimensions and forms is in there. All information. All time. All past. All future. All now. Everything.
Bottom line: We actually have everything in common.
“I am because we are.” — Ubuntu philosophy
Brett’s Second Law of Stuff:
Every particle that exists can only exist in the form it is in relation to every other particle in the universe. Even though each particle is unique, no particle is completely separate or unrelated to the others. In fact, it depends on the others to exist in its current form. Any other existence is impossible.
It is because the others are.
I am because you are.
This is more than the butterfly effect, but… everything that is, is that thing in the way that thing is because of all other things. If any one of the other things were different—or didn’t exist—the original thing would be altered. Full, disconnected independence is impossible.
At the same time, though, it is its own autonomous thing. It’s made of the stuff uniquely in the time and space in which it exists, meaning there are others like it, but not exactly the same and not in the same place at the same time.
Bottom line: We need each other in order to survive.
Appendix A to the Second Law:
This appearance of distinction gives the illusion—and myth—of separateness.
Each thing has enough information in it to trace not only everything that’s ever happened, but why and how… and has the information to predict what events and happenings are to come.
Let’s go with that, quickly expand, and wrap this up.
Brett’s Third Law of Stuff:
Love conquers hate.
Q: We too are objects, but we have free will, so does that interrupt or derail the predestined course of the future?
A: The predictable future is distinct from predestination. Just because the future is pre-written and predictable, it doesn’t mean we are without free will or accountability. Those two ideas can exist concurrently.
The actions we take with our free will are part of the untapped information in the object. Yes, the information has already been written, but simultaneously, the uncertainty of what actions will be chosen is equally valid and true as what’s been written in that information.
Free will gives us choice and say in the matter. Nothing’s changed. But if we’re made of the same stuff—and from the same stuff—there must be a sameness about us.
If we have a shared ancestry with a tiny stuffed animal lost in the couch, you’re damn right you and I are also related. On the DNA level, we are 98.8% the same as a chimpanzee, and what we do with this information matters big time. We humans, are 99.9% the same as each other. That’s 999 out of 1,000 parts—the same.
Utilize your free will for something you believe in.
Do one thing a day for 999 days to show we are the same, then—if you still want to—show that we’re different for 1 day.
This could be:
Sharing a meal with someone from a different culture
Being patient when an elderly homeless person crosses the street
Cheering for your rival’s team in the playoffs
Taking in your neighbor’s trash cans
Saying hi to the person you’ve been avoiding eye contact with
Bottom line: Be excellent to each other.
This week’s fundamental is DELIVER RESULTS:
Deliver bridges, not fences.
Deliver hugs, not hits.
Deliver love, not hate.
We’re more alike than we are different—and we still gotta deliver results.
~ Brett
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Fundamental of the Week #14: DELIVER RESULTS
Set high goals without overpromising. Track and measure your progress, and hold yourself and others accountable for delivering consistent results.
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