'Small Things Ruin the World' by Lindsey Muth

[Wetzelbill]

This isn't necessarily political, but it's a good little commentary on exasperation. -Bill

'Small Things Ruin the World'
By Lindsey Muth

My belief in the goodness of the world was destroyed (if it ever really existed) in a single Sunday, between noon and bedtime.

On our way to the theater, our car ride was interrupted by a 2-year old, making his way unaccompanied down a sidewalk along a busy city street. "That can't be right," one says to oneself, and double takes, making sure that the small boy is not a midget or illusion but a real 2-year old. The car is turned around.

We rounded the small child up like a dog; he was terribly afraid of us. I knelt down and said, "Where do you live?" But, like a dog or a 2-year-old, he didn't understand the language. He only looked at me, decided to turn and escape. I followed him closely as he wobbled along, my friends triangulating to keep the kid from running into the street. I soon lapsed into dog talk, yelling coaxingly but commandingly, "Go home! Go home!" Which he did, eventually. We ended up in a yard with plastic playground equipment, and I had to knock on a door, half ajar, and ask the family inside if they had a small, dark-haired child in a red flannel and squat Levi's, because we had chased one to their yard from the busy street nearby


http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/97/53/04_11.html

[MissMarple]

1. Yes, and small things save the world, everyday.

If things were perfect this would be heaven. It is so discouraging these days, everything that most of us here value in the public and the private spheres seems to be disintegrating. Our public discourse is shrill and divisive. The families so vaunted by the right are often stressed to the point of falling apart. Our government seems bent on further eroding the economy, and our leaders in power feed on creating divisiveness and discord.

Yet, we have survived bad times before, and we have the resouces to do so again. I think we can do it. But neglected little kids, like the poor, will always be with us. Our job is to make it less likely to happen, and ameliorate the effects of the bad things that happen.

A friend and I were talking recently about much the same topic. She is very religious, and very left leaning. She wants so much for things to be right, for no one to be hurt, for things to be perfect. She talked with some monks and their philosophy is similar to mine. We do what good we can, when we can, where we can. We have a purpose. And it matters.

I hope I haven't been too maudlin or sanctimonius, because I'm not particularly religious. Like Ben Franklin, I have trouble with dogma. But your article touched an issue my friend and have thought a lot about recently. When bad times come, and they always will, good people come together to help themselves and others through it, and to work to change the tenor of the times.

But, sometimes it does get so difficult, especially when you see that it could get worse.

Thanks for the opportunity to vent. It has helped me keep things in perspective.