Life is different to different people. Some people see life as a struggle, others see it as a song. Life is a cabaret but also a challenge. For some of us, life is a bitch, for others it’s a beach. Life is also described as an adventure, a journey, a highway, a dream or a drag, a mystery, and a test.
Remarkably, whatever your view or experience of life, there are two fundamental and interrelated relationships that are essential. One relationship describes an ongoing comparison between our moment by moment experiences and our expectations, dreams, wants, goals, standards, and desires. The other relationship describes our experiences as a combination of our actions and the current circumstances and conditions of the environment.
These beautiful and life-giving relationships are captured in two elegant and simple equations. The first equation depicts the difference between what is and what is wanted: e = r – p. “e” stands for the error or difference, “r” represents the reference point (goal, standard, expectation), and “p” is the perception or what is currently being experienced. The second equation tells us that the inputs to our senses are a combination of our actions and environmental conditions: qi = a + d. “qi” stands for the input quantity which is a general and neutral term for what impacts on our senses, “a” is the letter symbol used to refer to our actions, and “d” portrays the environmental disturbances.
The sly thing about these formulae is that they need to be considered simultaneously because they each affect the other. qi becomes p as our senses capture what is around them and e becomes a as our muscles and glands are harnessed for service.
These two magnificent expressions describe the process of control and explain how living things live. In order to live and keep living, a creature, any creature, must be able to act on its environment in order to keep the difference between what is and what is wanted very small. The whole point of the system that operates according to these two formulae is to keep e as small as possible.
All the living of all creatures all the time is governed by these formulae. From a single cell to a Siberian cat and from a seaside daisy to a slobbering dog, any entity that lives, does so by keeping its own private es very small.
Swatting a fly in the kitchen on a summer’s afternoon illustrates the operation of these formulae. The first thing to notice whenever an analysis like this begins is that where one starts and stops the description is essentially arbitrary. That’s because living is not a start and stop process (well, apart from the big stop at the end when everything ceases), and we are not start and stop entities. The ideas of lineal cause and effect and stimulus and response evaporate when life is appreciated through the formulae that create it.
So, back to the fly. Let’s say Charlie is standing in the kitchen preparing a meal. Out of the corner of his eye he notices some sudden movement. Charlie isn’t expecting his kitchen to be moving around so there’s a difference (e) between what is wanted (r; a non-moving kitchen) and what is (p; sudden movement). He turns his head (a) slightly to the left to get a better view of the source of the movement (d) and places the fly in the center of his vision (qi).
Since Charlie wants (r) to have a fly-free kitchen, he reaches for the fly swat and stealthily approaches the fly. Now, although I don’t know how to think like a fly, I’m going to infer that the fly has some kind of standard for maintaining a healthy distance between itself and other fast moving objects. As the fly detects (p) the flat yellow square of the swat moving swiftly towards it (d), it darts off the bench to keep the difference (e) between its fly is and its fly want very small.
And so begins a few minutes of lively activity which an onlooker might mistake for a Bollywood dance sequence as Charlie cavorts around the kitchen trying to connect the fly to the swat, and the fly produces a dazzling display of twists and turns as it avoids the close encounter Charlie has in mind.
Finally, the fly darts out an open window which Charlie deftly shuts behind it. With order restored to his fly-free kitchen, Charlie returns to the Gormeh Sabzi he was in the middle of preparing. He continues to chop and mix until his e associated with the preparation of the meal is minimised, which is just a pretentious way of saying he makes his is (current state of the Gormeh Sabzi ingredients) match his want (a ready to eat Gormeh Sabzi stew).
Understanding the dynamics of the formulae of life teaches us that, whether or not your life is a party or a pigsty, it’s your es that are critical. Sometimes size really does matter.
To live a life of purpose and meaning where contentment is the order of the day, do whatever you can do to keep your es as small as possible and to trim them lickety-split whenever they grow large. One of the delightful quirks of our design, is that assisting others to reduce their es will help us to keep our own es in diminished states as well.
Life is a formula – in fact it’s two. Understanding these formulae, as well as their implications, will help you be the life for which you yearn. The secret to life is all in the es.
