When I considered the nature of systems and how reality is relational (that is, how everything depends on everything else) in the natural world, (and that, obviously, includes human society) I was reminded of the movement of waves, i.e. wave motion, and I thought it might be helpful to use it as an analogy for how the family experiences change in the context of relationships within a network.
If we throw one stone into a circular pond with perfectly still water then the wave generated by the impact of the stone hitting the water will move (propagate) outward from the point where the stone hits the water.
If we throw in two stones simultaneously and they land a little away from each other, the two waves generated will interfere with each other as they propagate outwards from the points of entry of the stones.
This will cause the waves to be irregular, some of the interference causing the waves to be bigger, some causing the waves to be smaller or even cancel each other out.
Obviously if we throw in a number of stones the amount of interference will increase considerably, causing the wave patterns to be so irregular that it would be virtually impossible to distinguish what stone caused what wave.
A measurer with a slow-motion video camera and hours of time to spare may be able to determine which wave is caused by which stone and then analyse the waves to see which ones interfered with others, cancelled each other out, and/or reinforced each other, (in other words, examine the entire scene in a reductionist way).
The casual observer, however, would be uncertain as to what wave was caused by what stone. He would simply see a body of water with waves big and small going in different directions, the overall disturbance dependent on the size of the stones, the frequency at which they hit the water, and the force of their impacts.
In the next post I will apply all the above to the family situation.