Balloons and happiness

Once a group of 500 people were attending a seminar. Suddenly the speaker stopped and decided to do a group activity. He started giving each person a balloon. Each person was then asked to write their name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room.

The people were then let into that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written on it within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with each other, pushing around others and there was utter chaos.

At the end of 5 minutes no one could find their own balloon.
Then, the speaker asked each person to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

The speaker then began, "This is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is.

Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness; you will get your own happiness. And this is the purpose of human life...the pursuit of happiness."

This reminded me of a qoute from Benjamin Franklin.

"All true happiness, as all that is truly beautiful, can only result from order."

Tripp Borz wrote: "All true happiness, as all that is truly beautiful, can only result from order."

Much of the universe (and many mental patients) would seem to disagree with you here. There is nothing so magnificent as chaos in the making.

Steam, may I challenge you on that point?

If you will, provide some examples of beauty in chaos.

Inevitably, when someone asks for examples here, they are given, and the results turn into an argument on how those examples are faulty, usually coming down to " It depends on how you define/perceive, this or that."

So ultimately, any such example given is an exercise in futility here.

When one sees a trap such as this in the conversation, which can only result in several pages of what amounts to useless posts, the best thing to do is not spring the trap at all.

My best example though, would be the in the lives of stars.

Truly beautiful, even when succumbing to entropy.

You're correct. In fact, I was going to go down the road of "perception". See, my perception of chaos may not actually show random occurrence.

If I see a meteor shower, I may not understand the movements of all the various meteors in our atmosphere. I can't comprehend each second... I just have to take it in. For me, there is not a perceived order. But, that doesn't mean there isn't order involved. In fact, each of those movement patterns have extremely well-calculated trajectories and are affected by limitless factors. The sun's gravity. The Earth's gasses. The temperature. All of these things converge and influence very regularly. And, of course, each of these things changes by the nanosecond.

The original problem occurs in Franklin's quotation "All". Unfortunately, he wasn't perfect. Rarely are things "all". I don't think this is a case, since it is so opinionated and varied.

Connor Lidell wrote: You're correct. In fact, I was going to go down the road of "perception". See, my perception of chaos may not actually show random occurrence.

If I see a meteor shower, I may not understand the movements of all the various meteors in our atmosphere. I can't comprehend each second... I just have to take it in. For me, there is not a perceived order. But, that doesn't mean there isn't order involved. In fact, each of those movement patterns have extremely well-calculated trajectories and are affected by limitless factors. The sun's gravity. The Earth's gasses. The temperature. All of these things converge and influence very regularly. And, of course, each of these things changes by the nanosecond.

The original problem occurs in Franklin's quotation "All". Unfortunately, he wasn't perfect. Rarely are things "all". I don't think this is a case, since it is so opinionated and varied.

This logic is faulty because it assumes that "chaos" is a synonym for "randomness" in a language where "random" is often confused with "arbitrary." Forces interacting is not order. Forces interacting due to planning and intention is "order".

I have the personal belief that nothing is chaotic inherently. All things have laws that govern them on some level.

Now, there is beauty in what you say. Having the ability to plan... that is truly a gift.