Unbelievably, Daniel is back. Click on this link if you missed him the first time: I Had a Friend in Elementary School Named Daniel
“A mass of conflicting impulses?” says I.
“Yes. That is how the universe works. Energy moves around and matter gets transitioned and the net effect is chaos.” Says Daniel.
“What?”
And I would say, “Do tell, but keep it simple, I am 52 and these monkey bars aren’t as fun as they used to be”. And Daniel would say, “Kenny, (that’s what they called me in the 70’s, not so much anymore) let’s look at the first two laws of thermodynamics.” Daniel is still a geek.
“What is that?”
“Ah,” he would say to me, hopefully he is balding by now and regularly cleaning beneath his fingernails, “thank you for asking. I have always hoped you would ask an intelligent question.”
He still says strange and wonderful things: “The first law of thermodynamics states that energy and matter can neither be created nor destroyed. So what? So if you light a camp fire, with wood for example, the energy in the logs is used in creating heat. Some of the heat warms you, and some is lost to the people you are with, some absorbed by the rocks in the fire pit, the s’mores you consume, the guitar (because you can’t camp without a guitar!) the trees, dirt, etc… all around you. In other words, some is lost to the environment. The wood (matter) is transformed to carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. These elements don’t just disappear; they spread out in an unorganized fashion. Organized, these elements are wood. Disorganized, they are smoke, soot, ashes, etc. So matter just changes form. And energy is spread out or shared. The amount remains constant, no matter what form it takes. It is the organization of matter that fills it with energy. And, and this is a big ‘AND’, it takes a bunch of energy to put everything back together; more energy than was given off.”
Daniel has gotten so elegant with his explanations.
“What about the s’mores? And guitars? That’s the kind of stuff I want to know about!”
“Kenny you have never been one for staying on the subject. Just like when we played violins together in elementary school. Pay attention, this is good for you.”
He continued.
“The second Law of Thermodynamics picks up where the first left off. Entropy is now front and center. Entropy is a measure of randomness, or chaos, in a system. For example a teenager’s bedroom: the chaos increases over time. Unless energy is added to the system, entropy will ensure that more chaos is on the way. This means the teenager must clean the room! He/she must organize the junk and that takes energy; much more energy than just throwing things on the floor. And remember when we first started playing violins? All that scrapping and squeaking and Mrs. Sleeter trying to overcome the large amount of entropy? That took a lot of energy for us play in tune and on time, you know, coordinated. There are a million ways to play Arapaho Warriors incorrectly, but only one way to play it right.”
Daniel continued, “This is entropy, always trying to mess things up, always working against order and beauty. There are more ways to do things wrong than there are to do them correctly. Every system in the world has this dynamic going on. Everything is always moving toward disorder. And guess what? Humans are the same. Their physiology’s get more chaotic all the time. Therefore, indeed a mass of conflicting impulses you are. So what we know as ageing is really just increasing chaos in bodily systems.”
“Wow Dan, that was uplifting.”
“Hold on young warrior. There are things that can be done to resist the amount of entropy (disorder, chaos, randomness) we enjoy as we accumulate candles on our cakes.”
Good. He was talking about food again. Something I understand.
“The things we eat for example, have the potential to gives us energy to help our bodies organize their functions. Like when we eat vegetables, the vitamins and minerals are put to work and the energy is transferred to the ‘ingestor’ (you and me). That energy can be used for resisting internal chaos (entropy). Jack-in-the Box, although tasty, provides very little in the way of helping us organize our bodies, and in fact, may increase the amount of chaos we experience. Our thoughts play a role too. Staying clear headed requires energy and discipline. Negativity is nothing more than chaos manifesting in our thoughts. And don’t think negativity, criticism, etc. are helpful in organizing your body. They are not. They compound the mess. Thinking good clear thoughts is a hedge against entropy as well. Also, this is where you come in, Kenny, chiropractic adjustments are a buffer against entropy. Think about it. Energy is added to a system, in your case with the actuator..”
“That’s Activator, Dan.” It felt good to know something he didn’t.
“OK Activator. As the name implies, precise energy is given into the spine to affect the overall organization of the body TO RESIST ENTROPY; which as we said, is a hedge against the degenerative, chaotic, random, disordered mess we become as we age. Pretty sweet!”
“Wow Dan, you mean that we can do things on our own behalf to allow our bodies to get more organized, function better and generate a higher quality of life to be enjoyed longer by simply getting adjusted?”
“Bingo.”
“Thanks Dan.
Cheers,
ks