Something cool happened at lunch.

Let me preface this by stating that anyone can change the world.

But I’m not idealistic. You can’t change the world they way you want to, because outcomes and the actions of people are random and out of your control. Recently I had a first hand experience of my actions indirectly effecting people around me. The coolest part is when it is not a rational choice on my point, but a more subtle unconscious choice because of my personality.

Here is what happened. It was lunch time. My usual lunch buddies were mostly busy, or were eating later, so I went to eat lunch by myself. The cafeteria has two sections. The first is where you get the food, and then there is a big area with tables inside to sit and eat, with big bay windows on one side. I got my food, but instead of sitting in the cold air-conditioned room, I walked outside. There is a small patio, which in previous years had been the smokers’ patio. It is grey brick, with a few steps up from the dirt to the patio, and a quant wooden park bench. As I wandered through the tables I saw the park bench outside. It was just the way I am, that I decided to go and bask in the sunlight and listen to my iPod. I enjoy the heat and the humidity. After sitting in freezing offices all day, walking outside feels like a warm blanket (or a snuggie, even better).

So there I was -- basking in the sunlight, listening to some “sitting in the sun” tunes. As I peered through the glass into the gloom and doom of the dark abis that is the cafeteria, I saw a trapped soul sitting by himself eating his food as he stared out of the window. I smiled to myself and kept eating. He must have seen the joy on my face, because soon after I spotted him looking at me, he grabbed his tray, and marched outside to eat lunch on the steps.

And then… a jogger came running by, and knew the man sitting on the steps. He stopped and they had a little talk; a talk that never would have happened had the man been eating lunch inside. They probably talked about work, maybe baseball, maybe how the wife is, maybe they talked about chemical injection skids, and jogger suggested that the other guy come to a meeting on Friday. Maybe this man’s input in the meeting changes the injection skid they decide to purchase, which causes BP to spend millions of dollars at a different company. Which means that the welder, who would not have gone to work that day, comes in to work overtime to weld the skid together. Which means that his kid, instead of spending the day with his dad, goes off to the mall with his friends. Where he meets a girl. And ends up dating her friend. And this girl gets him into Indie Punk music, causing him to join the Indie Scene, affecting his life philosophy for the rest of his life. And I’m not even assuming anything catastrophic happens (like the kid dies in a car crash on the way to see a show).

So the world is really freeking complicated.