WQ - Order Out of Chaos

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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write, and this week's prompt is Chaos/Disorder. Oh good, I'm familiar with this topic! Trying to bring all my ideas and quotes together into some sort of orderly article focusing on chaos is a bit of a challenge though. Let's see what happens.

Art is the triumph over chaos. ~John Cheever

 

Jackson Pollock

The task of art today is to bring chaos into order. ~Theodor W. Adorno

Perhaps that effort is why still life paintings are such a staple in art? Capturing a moment when objects are arranged in an orderly and visually pleasing way, when in our daily life experience, those same objects might not be nearly so orderly. But that still life depiction might be what we aspire to.

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. ~Stephen Sondheim

We live in a rainbow of chaos. ~Paul Cezanne

That's true - sometimes what seems like chaos is actually quite beautiful! 

Moulin sur une rivière, par Paul Cézanne, Yorck

Trois crânes sur un tapis d'Orient, par Paul Cézanne, 1904

We adore chaos because we love to produce order. ~M.C. Escher

Giovanni Battista Piranesi - The Drawbridge
(an inspiration for Escher's endless stairs)

Ambigram tessellation Escher

Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous. ~Yehudi Menuhin

Certainly music is something that sets humans apart from animals in terms of our creativity in putting sounds together in ordered ways to come up with melodies, harmonies, and rhythms in constantly changing and new ways. One might argue that some of the modern experimental compositions are more chaotic and disordered than musical though! But still, at its heart, music does create ordered beauty out of a collection of sounds.

We have varying preferences for how orderly and structured our surroundings are, but most of us do prefer order to chaos in our homes and workplaces. Disorder and lack of organization frustrates us as we try to find lost things, keep track of our belongings, remember our appointments, pay our bills on time, and so much more. I call my own organizational style "artful stacking" and it may look more chaotic than a stereotypical Type A personality would be comfortable, but my purpose is the same - creating some kind of order out of chaos so I know where things are!

We live in two worlds - order and chaos. In the world of order, we plan, reflect, and think about what to do next. In the world of chaos, things happen, we get things done, yet unpredictability persists. In one world, we like to think we are in control. In the other, we mingle together with increasing complexity, conflict, and uncertainty. ~David Spangler

In the never-ending battle between order and chaos, clutter sides with chaos every time. Anything that you possess that does not add to your life or your happiness eventually becomes a burden. ~John Robbins

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. ~Annie Dillard

I like that way of looking at a schedule - a scaffolding that provides a safe structure for working at sections of time. As a procrastinator by nature, that's a helpful way to view my calendar and necessary daily routines, because I need some help in ordering my sections of time.

I even found a few mentions of chaos in the Bible. We can see that the nations are usually in political chaos, the entire world seems to be descending into societal and cultural chaos. Although the descent into chaos is inevitable in a world that doesn't follow God, it's NOT what God had planned for humankind. Sin started this world in a downward spiral of chaos, but when we turn back to God, he can bring order and harmony into our lives, and ultimately he will reorder the world when Christ comes back to establish his Kingdom.

A river brings joy to the city of our God,

the sacred home of the Most High.

God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed.

From the very break of day, God will protect it.

The nations are in chaos,

and their kingdoms crumble!

God's voice thunders,

and the earth melts!

The LORD of Heaven's Armies is here among us;

the God of Israel is our fortress.

~Psalm 46:4-7~

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens

(he is God!),

who formed the earth and made it

(he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!):

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

I did not speak in secret,

in a land of darkness;

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,

"Seek me in chaos."

I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right.

Turn to me and be saved,

all the ends of the earth!

~Isaiah 45:18-19, 22~

He is not a God of chaos, but he is a God of truth and order and beauty. If your world seems chaotic, seek him. He wants to bring order and peace into our chaos and allow us to experience his shalom.

Chaos in the midst of chaos isn't funny, but chaos in the midst of order is. ~Steve Martin

Wednesday Quotes is hosted by Marsha at Always Write. This post will be linked at #WQ #32: Chaos/Disorder

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