If you haven’t seen Jurassic Park in a while, it’s time to revisited it. Stop reading right now, break out the old DVD or say “Jurassic Park” into your Xfinity controller, stream it on Amazon Prime Video... whatever it takes, go watch it! What you’ll find is a prescient parable for our time.

There are many aspects of this classic Spielberg movie - the first in a series of quickly descending quality - that speak to our present situation. I’m thinking specifically of an imminent threat to life, greed, human carnage, velociraptors that can open doors, social distancing over ice cream, and rampaging T-Rexes that can’t see us if we don’t move. In other words, it’s basically a blow by blow recounting of 2020 as we have experienced it thus far.

What I would specifically like to call your attention to you today, however, is Dr. Ian Malcolm’s succinct and, I believe, timely-for-us description of the Butterfly Effect.

The scene in question finds Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) riding in a Jeep with Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). They’re taking a preview tour of the park, but thus far, haven’t seen (or been chased by) a single dinosaur. Malcolm adroitly points out that the Tyrannosaur doesn’t obey park schedules and thus illustrates the essence of chaos theory. When prodded by Dr. Sattler to elaborate, Malcolm says: “It simply deals with unpredictability in complex systems.” He dumbs this down for the viewing audience with: “The shorthand is the butterfly effect. A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine.”

If you read the original Michael Crichton novel (it’s even better than the movie), you’ll remember that chaos theory ran throughout the book. Crichton had encountered chaos theory in the works of James Gleick, an American historian of science, and Ivar Ekeland, a French mathematician, and used Malcolm’s character to apply it to the dangerous and alarming technology of genetic engineering. Jurassic Park was a cautionary tale.

Seemingly insignificant acts can greatly influence both world events and our personal lives.

While I don’t necessarily agree with chaos theory (or fully understand it), I do believe in the butterfly effect. I believe small, seemingly insignificant acts can greatly influence both world events and our personal lives.

We know of course, it was true for Malcolm and company in the sci-fi romp. A corpulent coder (Dennis Nedry, played by Wayne Knight), hatches a sneaky little scheme to get rich quick and the next thing you know, people are getting munched by rogue dino predators. Small things can lead to horrifying consequences.

A recent real-life example involved one person’s encounter with a nocturnal mammal on the far side of planet earth resulting in the loss of another person’s job some 6,958 miles away, suddenly making unemployment checks and trips to the plasma center for extra cash necessary for survival. And on a larger, more significant scale, that single trip to the market for bat meat launched the social distancing craze, sickened and killed millions, and crashed the world economy. Boom! The butterfly effect.

But butterfly activity doesn’t always have to lead to mayhem, poverty, shrieks of terror, and a pandemic of death. I have a plaque on my desk that reads: “Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones come daily.”

As I was glancing at this plaque the other day, it occurred to me that this is precisely the time in our history - or at least, the moment in our lifetimes - when small things are not only a good idea, they could be the solution to our problems.

That particular day was months into COVID-19 isolation and, for me, joblessness, and, thanks to the heinous butterfly act of a certain law enforcement officer, our nation was on fire - both emotionally and physically. My initial reaction was that I could do nothing. It was overwhelming. Sitting there in our spare bedroom/home office, I felt impotent to change anything or make a difference.

But that isn’t true. We can all make a difference - in some cases, massive, domino differences - through small acts. Science, my own experience, and Dr. Ian Malcolm all attest to this.

Which is how I came up with an audacious plan. A silly plan. A plan that is ridiculously simply, terribly naïve, not at all original. But I’m convinced that if we followed this three-point proposal, we could improve our world. It goes like this:

1. Smile. Studies show that when we see a smiling face, our brains release endorphins. These chemicals help us feel happier and calmer. They also relieve stress, which has been found to contribute to a number of diseases, including cancer. Smiling not only boosts your own mood, but that of others.

Granted, we’ve got the issue of masks in the mix. But even if they continue to be a thing, I still suggest smiling. It’s evidenced not just by our mouths, but by our eyes. People can tell when we’re smiling - even if it’s a partially obscured, coronavirus smile.

Butterfly Effect Scenario: You feel sorta crappy because 2020 has been about as much fun as a never ending root canal, but you decide to suck it up and smile. Another person sees you. Maybe their life is totally in the toilet and they can’t even see sky from their vantage point. Your smile causes a chemical reaction that results in a break in the clouds, sunlight seeps through, and they find the strength to emerge from the gloom, something they then pass on to their colleagues or family members. The impact could be exponential.

2. Be Kind. The above has the potential to be more substantial and lasting if it is linked with a kind act or word. Think random acts of kindness, except not random. More like consistent, intentional, and with purpose. What if we started going around smiling, actually looking for, seeking, ferreting out ways to help, assist, boost, bless, encourage, motivate, and otherwise be nice to other people (i.e. live the Golden Rule)? Yeah, many of them would think we had lost our minds. But being crazy/kind is far better than being sane/mean, don’t you think?

What if we started going around smiling, actually looking for, seeking, ferreting out ways to help, assist, boost, bless, encourage, motivate, and otherwise be nice to people?

There’s a video going around called “Shoulder Taps.” In it, a guy talks about getting the idea to tell an elderly woman that she looks beautiful. It’s a simple compliment. But when he steps out of his comfort zone and acts on this impulse, it turns out to be very important to the woman for a reason he couldn’t have guessed or anticipated. That’s the kind of thing that can happen.

Butterfly Effect Scenario: You see the neighbor across the street struggling to get the trash out to the curb. It dumps en route. Instead of sitting in the spare bedroom watching them clean up the mess, you go out and help them pick it up. In the process, you meet them for the first time, have a conversation, and, of course, offer a smile. Pretty sure that won’t result in a fistfight or the appearance of the riot police.

3. Pray. Even if you don’t believe in God, my challenge is to give prayer a shot. What will it hurt? What might it help? It’s clear that things are out of control (are they ever really in our control?) and we could use some divine assistance and intervention. We could pray for our own attitudes, for our country, for our leaders, for members of our law enforcement agencies, and for the chance to make little differences every day in the lives of those around us.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” - Vincent van Gogh

I can’t see how doing any of the above would bring a negative result. Worst case scenario, our faces get tired from smiling, people don’t respond to our kindness, and we get the old silent treatment from God. Best case scenario, we all flap our little wings and life gets better.

I’m gonna give it a shot and see what happens. Who’s with me?