Because of my newfound faith as a Christian, I’ve recently been more and more interested in physics, and as a result, I’ve been able to appreciate more deeply the intricacies of God I find in the natural world. In the realm of quantum mechanics, there is a principle known as the “observer effect.” This principle states an observer will, by necessity, change a situation or a phenomenon simply through their interaction with it. This especially rings true when considering our interactions with one another. 

By listening, observing and speaking with each other, our states of being and perspective change our experiences, as well as the reality of what we are facing. While this may sound obvious on the surface, I think the crux of this claim has to do with the fundamental nature of the “observer effect.” What it comes down to is what it means to have a perspective. The perspective of the observer, by necessity, changes the situation. It changes the phenomena, even if only in a minute way.

In our day-to-day lives, our perspectives can change our entire realities. Our understanding, beliefs, preconceptions or dispositions towards particular things, people and events can shift our entire frameworks of understanding. Our understandings shift our actions, and our actions shift the world itself. This is true, and this is clear. So what? 

This fundamental truth that is embedded into the very reality of matter beckons us to expand our perspectives. It beckons us to grow. It calls us to know more and broaden our horizons. Socially, it calls us to know those who we call “they,” so that they are no longer a “they” and are only an “us.” Perhaps that is idyllic. In fact, this won’t happen in this world, but to truly know each other and live in communion, isn’t that what it means to be a person?