The Ripples of Action in Life

     In life, our actions have an effect on everyone they remotely touch. For example, one's words about someone could be spread to them by people that overhear. This is one instance of the quote, "That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind." To me, this simply means that our actions have limitless effects in a manner similar to the ripples in a pond. Throwing a rock into a still pond causes ripples to push outward and they exert a force upon whatever they touch. That is a way to interpret human actions. One action leads to a reaction which leads to a reaction, and that can continue on for a good while until the action or words lose their original power. If I do wrong towards somebody and they fume about it and vent to their friends, that can spread to people who were never involved in the situation and dent people's reputations. To put it another way, human lives are pieces of debris on a body of water; they come out of nowhere, are affected quite often by ripples (most of which aren't desired by the debris), and leave the pond, often without warning. Everyone in the same area are, as we would say, in the same boat as each other, so we can sympathize and relate to the reactions of those who are affected by things. To me, the quote from The Five People You Meet in Heaven essentially means that humanity is connected, and our actions affect more people than we think.

                --Jonas Truax