Dear History Lover,

        As we settle into the dog days of summer, take a brisk step back from our daily motions to humor an inquiry: 

Do you want to achieve something; yet, feel it impossible?

          Seeking a reprieve from the daily grind is not only natural, but also healthy. An opportunity to let loose is often well deserved. For example, Pandemonium Day was celebrated yesterday and we embraced a world of chaos with open arms. July 14 is one day of the year when we are encouraged to set aside our responsibilities and experiment with activities that are seemingly out of reach. A day to let down your hair and "wave your arms like you just don’t care."

        What is “pandemonium”? What is its etymology? "Pandemonium," was coined by English Poet John Milton, and first used in the epic poem Paradise Lost. Published in 1667, it is the story of Adam and Eve and the temptations marking the fall of humankind. When dissecting the word, combine the Greek prefix “pan”, meaning “all,” with the Latin root “daemonium,” meaning “evil spirits.” Pandaemonium, in Paradise Lost, is depicted as the capital of Hell, and John Milton employed vivid imagery of a fiery city with the intimations of imperial Roman architecture. 

          Since its adoption into English vernacular, the word is no longer initial capitalized and the spelling has evolved (as has a great deal of other American English words). "Pandemonium" was adopted into contemporary speech thanks to writers such as Mark Twain. In 1872, Twain wrote in Roughing It: 

Natives from the several islands who had made the place a pandemonium every night with the howlings and wailings, beating of tom-toms and dancing…

          Upon inspection of the Oxford English Dictionary, "pandemonium" is defined as “utter confusion, uproar; wild and noisy disorder; a tumult; chaos.” So, why in the world would we want to celebrate this?

        Initially commemorated in the 1990s, Pandemonium Day, designated on July 14, celebrates bedlam and chaos. To go so far as to embrace pandemonium is to acknowledge its inevitability. To observe it rather than react to it creates a new thought pattern, sparks synapses, and rewires the brain. If we break habitual patterns of craving and aversion, we find beauty even in chaotic moments. Some folks develop rituals to commemorate the day, such as reading up on the concept of “chaos theory;” a mathematical study of apparently random or unpredictable behavior in systems governed by deterministic laws. Chaos is reliably enigmatic. It manifests alien patterns that appeal to the brain in a plea for logic. As humans are generally animals of order and structure, it may be particularly jarring to disrupt routines. Habits are adopted through the adaptation and application of new information into day-to-day life.

          At inception, every soon-to-be habit was once chaos, and though substantial change may be intermittent and not particularly linear, the concept of change is consistent and powerful. 

          Meteorologist Edward Lorenz (1917-2008) published Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas? (1972), which introduced the concept of the “butterfly effect.” This theory explains how simple models of heat convection have intrinsic unpredictability. Consider the flapping of a butterfly’s wings as being so connected to the environment that the heat produced by its energy catalyzes storms and flooding on other parts of the globe. Thus, while the world around us may be deterministic in nature, phenomena have patterns of predictability, and these patterns may be at the whim of chaos’ doing (or undoing).

Connecting this concept to daily life, we may embrace chaotic catalyzation as a means to stray from habitual thought patterns and acquire new habits; a novel method to process information and confront knowledge through a jarringly new lens. Chaos forces us to embrace mechanisms that alter our thought and behavior. We undergo alternative iterations of identity based on the chaos surrounding us.
        Lauren Oliver, American author of the novel Pandemonium (2012), writes:

People themselves are full of tunnels: winding, dark spaces and caverns; impossible to know all the places inside of them.

          While we may not comprehend chaos, we can perceive its effects on mind, body, and soul. We are empowered to react or not, and instilled with the skill to embrace chaos as a tool. Start preparing for next year's Pandemonium Day today, and let mindfulness glean equanimity in the face of provocation.

Historically yours,