Laying the bike down.

The tour has ended. Unable to obtain the parts needed for the last 4-6 day stretch of cycling an unexpected decision has been made to call it off early. The sense of achievement is blanketed by this, however it was time anyways. Redundencies were a catalyst to delerium, and countinuous rain began the onset of a slight case of mania.

Besides this news I would like to share a few paragraphs from The Hidden Connections by Fritof Capra with some of my personal comments. Within a section called 'The Nature of Life' Capra goes into a highly condensed synopsis of what we can consider life to be in a biological frame of reference. Many sections stand out to me so much so that I am already reading these parts over again in hopes of a better understanding. This following excerpt stood out to me and and this is something I want to share.

"Detailed studies of the flow of matter and energy through complex systems have resulted in the theory of dissipative structures developed by Ilya Prigogine and his collaborators. A dissapative structure... is an open system that maintains itself in a state far from equilibrium, yet is nevertheless stable: the same overall structure is maintained in spite of an on going flow and change of components. ... The dynamics of these dissipative structures specifically include the spontanious emegence of new forms of order. When the flow of energy increases, the system may encounter a point of instability... at which it can branch off into an entirely new state where new structures and new forms of order may emerge.

"The spontaneous emergence of order at critical points of instability is one of the most important concepts of the new understanding of life... It has been recognized as the dynamic origin of developement, learning, and evolution. In other words, creativity - the generation of new forms - is a key property of all living systems."

This is an interesting concept within its own parameters and understanding it fully may require some extra reading. However, I want to focus on its general conclusion and apply the concept beyond cellular life and dissapative structures. What interests me is the critical points of instability which leads to developement, learning, and evolution. I am sure that most of my audience knows from experience that turbulent times within their social persona and/or personal ego has ultimately lead to learning and developement for the better. But, can we say that there is evolution as a result? Evolution as an organisim? Probably not! However, evolution as a living social network of human beings is more probable and this leads back to my post concerning my known audience. Communicaiton of our learning an developement is an effetive way to expand the evolution of human beings because we exist in a living social network. The evolutionary chain demands that we communicate otherwise all we are doing is stunting the growth of ourselves and our oneness within the network.

I guess I should communicate more.

Love you all. Special thanks to Chad and Jen W. for their wonderful encouragement and insites. Extra love to that baby boy (I almost cry everytime I think about him).

Keep on rockin' !