The other day, it struck me with force that the big things which we see in the media and talk about in public are assumed to be the causes; and little things such as we experience in our own lives are assumed to be consequences of these big things.
But it is perhaps much more likely that the causality is reversed - and that the big measurable things are merely very distal, crude, averaged-summaries that originated and grew from some-thing very small, specific and publicly unknown.
By this inversion; big things are so weak as to be negligible - consequences not causes; whereas small things are of immense but hidden power.
If true, how could this be known? Well plenty of things may be known; but in ways that would not be convincing to large numbers of other people who are uninterested and incompetent! If you want to convince uninterested and incompetent people... well you are, of course, going to need to refer to big things - but in doing so you will be making false inferences and assertions!
Meanwhile, the real action will be happening unknown, unperceived, in some neglected place by people that hardly anybody has heard-of...
3 comments:
There is a lot to be said for small acts of love and kindness in everyday life. Specifically those that are deliberately not done for our own egoistic benefits or to be seen by others as an overt show of 'goodness' that often merely detracts from the purity of the act. I have the perhaps foolish belief that if we all acted like this more routinely the world would be a better place. I only wish I could live up to my own expectations. When one acts from the heart, one is literally swimming against the tide of the world. But have you ever noticed the pure joy such acts can bring? It can be felt in the heart of the giver and seen in the eyes of the reciever; a brief softening of the eyes, a letting go of the harsh, oppresive heaviness of living in a world that denies the love of God.
You put me in mind of Adam's response to the teaching he receives from the angel Michael at the close of Paradise Lost:
Merciful over all his works, with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things; by things deem'd weak
Subverting worldly-strong, and worldly-wise
By simply meek.
If the memes in my head have labels attached so their creators might be properly acknowledged, the one labeled "Dr. Charlton" is "The Eternal Importance of the Present Moment."
Thanks, friend.
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