Political, responsibility, saving
20190800107 4 minutes

We are so accustomed to seeing the “big picture” that the small is frequently overlooked. But the big picture is actually made up of tiny things.
The beach is actually millions of grains of sand. Rivers and the sea are actually trillions of drops of water. That delicious plateful of food in front of you is actually millions of atoms that came together to enchant you.
We think of babies as being something “small.” Or individuals as being “alone.” But babies and individuals are themselves made of tiny cells, each of which play their part in keeping their person operational. All these cells are only kept at optimum productivity by the fuel we give them – what we put inside our bodies – the food we eat and the beverages we drink.
If education is what helps us understand the world we live in, and our decisions are based on the information we receive from all sources, then mis-information can affect and cloud our judgment. The lore and laws of one period are turned over and voided in another as we learn more.
Most of us subscribe to the fallacy that we do not have to take responsibility for what we do – that the “little candy wrapper” that we throw out of the “car window”, or “drop on the sidewalk,” is unimportant. Wrong. If we all took responsibility for our own “trash,” or paid the real cost of manufacturing our purchases, the world would be a very different place. If we each realized that “cheap” is not the only criteria to apply to purchases, that maybe paying more to ensure a real living wage to those involved in producing an item and getting it to market, is more important than a lower price for us, it would contribute to a more equitable world, which would benefit us all in the long run. Tiny actions, when multiplied by thousands or millions of people, become law- and life-changing movements.
It’s the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, the last drop of water that precipitates a landslide, the last degree of heat that erupts the volcano. The last one that precipitates the catastrophe only does it because of all the other increments that have been building up previously. Without all of them, nothing would happen. Each tiny accumulation builds up the crescendo to break the dam, precipitate the earthquake and the tsunami.
Tiny increments matter. Little acts of responsibility make a difference. Turning off electric lights saves not just our own electric bill but the total fund of electricity; washing hands in a basin of water instead of under a running faucet; driving to town for shopping once a week instead of every day; all these save not only our own costs but national and world resources as well, which can only benefit us in the long run.
Tiny actions matter.