Redditor Shares Incredible Butterfly Effect Story Set Here in Maine
Have you ever had a “butterfly effect” moment? Do you even know what that is?
“Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?"
It’s sort of like a domino effect but far more profound. Its roots come from a question posed by Edward Lorenz who is known as the father of chaos theory according to MIT News. As MIT News reported, Lorenz was the guy that figured out, “ small differences in a dynamic system such as the atmosphere--or a model of the atmosphere--could trigger vast and often unsuspected results.” While rooted in meteorology this theory applied to much more.
American Scientist reports that it was during the 139th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that Lorenz gave wings to what we now know as the butterfly effect, “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?"
What it comes down to is a small choice can have a major ripple effect on your life and the world around you.
In 2004 the movie The Butterfly Effect was released starring Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher’s character Evan found the ability to go back in time and change situations from the past only to realize the lasting impact in the future in alternate realities.
For many of us, we can look back on our lives and think of spur-of-the-moment choices or unexpected occurrences that happened that completely changed the trajectory of our lives.
One well-known butterfly effect story centers around Family Guy creator, Seth MacFarlane. According to CheatSheet.com Seth was supposed to be on American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001. He partied too hard the night before, fell asleep in the passenger lounge, and missed the flight. Had he not partied too hard he would have died that day.
On the askreddit subreddit, user u/PM_Me_Pierced_Labia posed the question, “What small action did you take that you later realized had “butterfly effect” that turned into something much more important?”
There are hundreds of responses but one that takes place here in Maine from user u/Unique-Public-8594 who wrote:
Invited someone to lunch along the Maine coast, water view, my treat. Had not seen her in over 40 years. The intention was to thank her for being fun when we were kids. I had no idea at the time but she told me later she had been contemplating suicide. That lunch saved her life.
It’s truly incredible when you can experience something in life that obviously happened for a reason.