Thriving in chaos

Over the weekend, at the Texas Wild Rice Festival, I got to hear Dr. Jim Kimmel give a talk about what you can learn from a river -- how people and the environment interact with each other. About 100 years ago, along the stretch of the river now known as Sewell Park, a man with an augur would come through and plow up the vegetation growing in the waters, including the Texas Wild Rice, to make the area more welcoming for the many swimmers that visited it. Once it was discovered that the rice was an endangered species, it of course became illegal to plow it up. However, once the rice was protected by law, it thinned out. When it was being plowed up regularly, it always grew back, and always thicker and than before. After a major flood in 1998, during which the river basically dredged itself, the wild rice once again came back stronger than it was during the years of calm. Some species, Dr. Kimmel said, need a certain amount of chaos to thrive, to reach their potential strength.

The San Marcos River at Sewell Park, with Texas Wild Rice waving in the water

I think people are another species that need a degree of unrest in order to grow. The only way we are ever really challenged is through difficulty -- coping with crisis, tragedy or trauma. To survive, we have no choice but to grow stronger. But at the same time, we need a secure base -- like a riverbed -- to stay rooted in. That base can be family and friends, a broader community, a sense of faith, or even something as basic as the knowledge that we have a roof over our heads and know where our next meal is coming from. This is true for emotional growth, spiritual growth and artistic growth. I don't like to play into the idea that suffering is necessary for art, but exploration and adventure may be. The strange, the unexpected, the daunting experiences that life has to offer -- a certain amount of chaos. Don't be afraid to let yourself get cut down a little. You'll grow back stronger than before.