Keri's stuff :-)

Reaction rates

I've been thinking about reactions.  Not (with apologies to Tim) thrombogenic chemical reactions, but more about our reactions - yours and mine. 

When I was an undergraduate, we had to get summer jobs in engineering workshops.  I worked in Otahuhu Engineering for three months, improving my dexterity in fitting and turning, welding, and avoiding dodgy calendars.  When you start to use big machinery like we had there, it makes all kinds of new and weird noises that you aren't used to.  Some of the noises were horrible (to my untrained ears), although nothing was wrong.  Other noises didn't bother me at all, but made the other guys turn instantly green and rush to shut the machine off.  And so I learnt what was good and what was bad by the reactions of the more experienced people around me. 

We can continue with the engineering theme in a more conceptual manner, because so many measurements are based on reaction.  When you weigh something, you are really measuring the reaction of your scales to the thing that you are weighing.  When you test how strong, or tough, or hard a piece of steel is, you are interested in how that piece of steel reacts to the conditions you subject it to.

I have a feeling that it's the same with us.  Each one of us is a measuring scale, waiting for something to react to.  The way that we react will tell the people around us something about what has happened - this is where my thought started.  What do the people around me learn from my reactions?  Do my reactions convey what I really think is true, or am I guilty of ignoring sounds and symptoms that should have me reaching for the big red stop button?  And what about the other elements of measurement?  Are my reactions calibrated properly - that is, do I show the right kind of magnitude for the stimulus I'm given, or do I over- (or under!) react?  Is there noise in my system - that is, do I react to unimportant things, rather than acting and reacting only on what really matters, and letting insignificant things remain that way? 

The amount that we learn from one another is scary, and the speed and subtlety with which we learn it is even scarier.  So this is my little challenge to myself (and to you, if you'll take it) - think about your reactions.  Think about what you are teaching other people about the world around us, about the God around us, and about yourself, all by how you act.  If you're anything like me, "sorry" will be the only correct initial reaction, though others will follow.

Just a thought,

K

• Posted by flyingkiwi on 17/01/2007.
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