The pelican is creating quite a stir among local birdwatchers who are going out of their way to see it. Pelicans, you see, are not normally found in this area. They winter in the gulf states and breed in parts of central U.S. and western Canada.

It’s not unheard of for birds to wander out of their normal territory. It happens occasionally to the delight of those of us fascinated with our feathered friends. No one seems to know quite why it happens. Perhaps something in the bird’s inborn radar has gone wrong.

But what if this pelican made the trip up here to symbolize for us the far-reaching effects of the BP oil spill?

Yes, we’re all very much aware of the situation. We’ve seen the video clips of the oil plumes billowing out of the well 5,000 feet below the surface. We’ve seen the heart wrenching photos of sea birds coated in oil. And we’ve heard about the devastating impact on the local economies which depend on fishing or tourism.

But all of this is taking place 1,300 miles away. We know it as the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history. Thankfully, we think, it doesn’t affect us directly. Or does it?

What if the “butterfly effect” metaphor is really accurate? I won’t pretend to understand the intricacies of chaos theory from which this metaphor arises. But the basic idea is that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can create enough of a disturbance to cause large scale atmospheric motion with ripple effects around the world.

Sounds farfetched? Think back a few years to the great northeast blackout of 2003. A 3,500 MW power surge in the New York State power grid set off a chain reaction that left 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states without electricity. A pretty convincing argument for the “butterfly effect”.

So if a 3,500 MW power surge could cause that amount of trouble over such a wide area, the same chaos math applied to hundreds of millions of litres of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico is a frightening prospect indeed.

1,300 miles is not much more than one flap of a butterfly’s wing in that scheme of things.

So let’s consider that American White Pelican hanging out in Oshawa to be a metaphor for the long term – and long distance – effect of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. It affects us all from one end of the planet to the other.

And let us not forget that 11 lives were lost when the explosion happened. 11 human beings whose bodies were never found. Think of the families of those workers… and the friends of those workers… and the disruption in the cosmic flow caused by 11 lives snuffed out for no good reason.

I don’t think the pelican just got lost. I think he made the trip for a very good reason. We’d better start paying attention.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Is our world really surging onward in every shortening cycles of renewal? Or is there an evil mastermind behind it all dreaming up senseless change after change to keep us all dancing to his fiddle tune?

The software industry – Microsoft in particular – are the overlords of this change conspiracy. They employ armies of people most of whom are foot soldiers in the perpetual change machine.

The association I work for recently upgraded to a newer version of Microsoft Office which has a host of sparking, new features. There is just one problem. Average Joe Users like me only use a small percentage of the program’s functionality. We don’t need and don’t want all these snazzy, new features. As far as we’re concerned, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Okay, you say, so just go on using the features you’ve used before. Ah, but there is the problem. The new version of Excel, for example, doesn’t have just a few new bells and whistles. The entire interface has been changed! Nothing is where it used to be. I have to relearn the entire program just to do the same old things. This is the change conspiracy at work!

Evidence of the change conspiracy is everywhere. The grocery store chain I shop at recently re-branded itself. Apparently that made it necessary to completely reconfigure the store. I used to know where everything was. Now I have to go search for all those items.

Where’s the benefit to me? It’s the same stuff but it seems putting it in a different place is supposed to make me want it more. Reality check time, retail gurus. All you’ve accomplished is to piss me off.

The packaged goods industry has its own spin on the change conspiracy. It spits out an endless stream of silly variations on established products.

The hair shampoo I buy now has versions for normal hair (medium and fresh), oily or fine hair (fine or thick ‘n full), dry hair, dandruff prone hair (dandruff control and dandruff dismissed – what the hell is the difference?), colour treated hair and 4 versions of the “For Men” formula. It gives me a headache trying to find the regular version. I used to be able to grab it without breaking my stride.

I dub this change conspiracy the Microsoft Effect. Remember, you heard it here first!

The Microsoft Effect is the re-branded metaphor of the Butterfly Effect. Microsoft reinvents a software program. This starts a ripple which spreads insidiously across the planet. Six months later a guy in Tokyo is scratching his head wondering why his breakfast cereal is suddenly on the other side of the store.

Yes, my tongue is planted firmly in my cheek. But my change conspiracy theory has a grain of truth in it. Change is a part of life. I accept that. But we’ve allowed the change conspirators to infiltrate our everyday life and bombard us with purposeless change. I for one am tired of dancing to their tune.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel”. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar.

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