Order, Disorder, Reorder
When you were a child, what stories were you told about how the world and the universe work?
During my years teaching high school, I noticed most kids I worked with carried these stories until they hit 14 or 15 years old. (Along with stories about their own worth, value, and being.)
And then around 10th grade, something happened. I often saw a shift in them – an opening – to new stories, new options, and new ways of situating themselves in the world.
My interpretation of this?
Their experience of the world – including their new knowledge, ability to use critical thinking skills, and the developmental chaos of puberty – was bringing them from a “my parent told me so” worldview to an “I can find out for myself” way of knowing. They were beginning to stretch into a newfound and still-to-be-explored autonomy.
Richard Rohr might refer to this moment in many of us as a shift from the clarity of Order to the confusion and possibility of Disorder.
He writes,
“A sense of order is the easiest and most natural way to begin; it is a needed first ‘container.’ But this structure is dangerous if we stay in its safe confines too long. It is small and self-serving. It doesn’t know the full picture, but it thinks it does. ‘Order’ must be deconstructed by the trials and vagaries [experiences] of life. We must go through a period of ‘disorder’ to grow up.”
This process of Order → Disorder is a "shaking up" of the status quo. And it isn't a one-time event; it happens again and again in our lives in a myriad of unique ways, in the small moments and in the big ones.
Intimacy → Loss
Marriage → Divorce
Stability → Instability
Knowing → Unknowing
Connectedness → Isolation
Groundedness → Adriftness
"I know this" → "What if...?"
Schooling → Post-Graduation
Employment → Unemployment
Perceived Safety → Lack of Safety
Richard teaches that much of "wisdom" is about learning to honestly integrate our experiences of Disorder into our lives, learning and growing through them.
He continues,
“There is no nonstop flight to Reorder. To arrive there, we must endure, learn from, and include the Disorder stage, transcending the first naïve Order—but also still including it!”
He writes that we must “go through—not under, over, or around” this terrifying middle in our great transition from “what was” to “whatever comes next.”
📝 Questions:
What have been a few transition moments between Order → Disorder in your life? What did they feel like? How did you body respond? How did you show up in your communities during these times? How did your communities respond to you during these times?
This isn't just a personal framework: take a moment to think about the Order → Disorder → Reorder framework in the context of one of your communities. What stage are you currently in as a community? How have you moved through these stages? (Have you?) What energies have been present to preserve the current stage or invite movement to the next?
🧰 Resources:
The Wisdom Pattern by Richard Rohr (book)
“Order Disorder, Reorder” by Richard Rohr (article)
Learn More About Richard Rohr (Teacher Profile)
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