Too Many Magnets on the Table

Several years ago, while waiting for my wife Maureen to do some last minute Christmas shopping in a department store, I strolled over to the books-and-games department to browse around. I was fascinated by a pendulum that was swinging freely in all directions, seemingly self-propelled. Then I noticed that the pendulum had a small magnet at its end which was being pulled and pushed by four other magnets clinging to the supporting base below.

As I watched, I tried to detect some pattern in its motion as it swung around in ever-decreasing arcs. Then I tried to make it swing in one pattern by releasing the pendulum from the same starting point each time. No matter how often I tried, the "life-path" of each swing was different from the one before.

In a way, that didn't surprise me because I knew that I couldn't really start the swing in exactly the same place each time. But I was surprised at how much that pendulum moved around, slowing down, speeding up, and changing direction from one moment to the next. I had expected that the simple pendulum, even with a few small magnets, should have behaved in a more predictable way.

Then I suddenly remembered, from High School Physics, that such prediction becomes very difficult when you have to consider more than two objects that are being influenced by several interacting forces. So I removed all but one magnet from the table, and smiled as the pendulum settled down to a reasonably predictable pattern in its swinging.

In the next few weeks (and often since then) I began to notice how the erratic and unpredictable behavior of people seemed to be so much like that pendulum. It was as though they were being pushed and pulled through life by many invisible interacting "magnets." Sometimes one or two strong magnets seemed to be at work (Greed, Ambition), producing easily predictable behavior. Sometimes several equally matched "magnets" competed with each other, causing confused thrustings here and there (Cultural teachings, Biological Urgings, Childhood Experiences, etc.). However, unlike the magnets of the pendulum, these "magnets" of life come and go under different circumstances, and often in some cyclic pattern.

How can you gain control of your life with all these hidden "magnets" pushing and pulling at you all day long? The first step is to become aware of them! Try to recall the many forces and circumstances which have strongly driven your life up to now. Only after you become aware of them, can you begin to ignore those less important "magnets," so that you can cope with those you can't ignore.

But even if you can't control them, it often helps in just knowing that your problems arise because there are just too many magnets on the table.

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