small

“Negations seem to say less,
but actually they say more... expressing transcendence.
The more intimate the ascending force, the more powerful the elevation;
the deeper the love, the more fruitful the rising. It is beneficial, therefore,
to practice in this manner.”

~ Saint Bonaventure, Love Enkindled

Perhaps, if there will be interest to someone far into the future, the telescopic truncation of time will reveal a dovetailing of present-day crises. From intensely economically recessed times, there followed a devastating global pandemic, giving way to this contracting and stratified era. What comes next remains to be seen. While the cultural and infrastructural scaling-back of the past decade seems yet to hit the bottom, contrasting and exclusive opulence has yet to crest. The view from my very modest perch is that of scaled-back times persisting and forcing ambitions into compromise. Reflecting upon the ancient prayer to be led away from temptation and delivered from evil, there really is no other wise choice but to persevere and to improve as possible. No turning back, and no stopping at this extremity of my hardworked tracks. This often comes to mind, sometimes when my daily commute includes a long stretch of shadeless barrens of broken pavement mildly recalling slivers of my junior high school trudges. The urgency of perseverance bites down on my work days. Keep going, I tell myself, even if just by modest increments. Big ideas may exemplify ambition, though progress may manifest by small measures. Reaching destinations, apparently, is the guiding big idea. Complex entities become intelligible, as Descartes posited, via analyses of the smaller components. This comes to mind as I process oceans of archival documents and images while keeping the broader entirety in view. Completing projects, of any extent, also carries metaphors about letting go, taking on new projects, and persisting in my belief that better will ensue.

Amidst a societal prevalence of necessary downsizing, terms such as small and humble have ceased being pejoratives. Basics being unaffordable for so much of the general population, frugality has taken on a self-defensive connotation. Economics and personal reach are obviously tied together. Many of us are brought to the challenge of whether and how less can be more. What happens to the scale of our hopes, as buying power dissipates? Shall we thrive in our smallness?

Such small things in a major accomplishment for the ages.

Living in a scenic, yet depressed region whose chief commerce is tourism reveals a juxtaposition of extremes which are impossible not to notice. For this essay’s occasion, my treatment of smallness is along the lines of making do- as necessary. Small pieces in an immense puzzle, such as one 35mm negative among 1.2 million- each that I examined while interpreting and processing an enormous archival collection. In context all those tiny parts find their greatest research and documental impact. Gem-like smallness, from artifacts to difference-making mechanical parts, are outsized in their importance. Think of ingredients. Years ago, when my mother taught me to bake bread, she showed me what a pinch of salt is, and how integral that is to the exponentially larger whole. When I’m binding books, I regularly see what a great difference a sixteenth-of-an-inch makes. Ponder the parabolic implications around grains of leaven and mustard seeds. Astonishingly simple things serve to form a reliable world around us. When I see ads and signs about “buying small” from a small and local business, building smart and small, companies and venues that publicize their personal attention, it is interesting to see the humble somehow exalted.

As we are compelled, for any of many reasons, to redefine what we mean by significance, we may also reconsider how we interpret importance, and what is trivial. In all spheres, it is critical for me to know what I’m overlooking and needs my careful attention. Difference-making, subtle factors can paradoxically become vital. Indeed, there are solutions found in correctly fitted fasteners and cogs- and surely how far-reaching are small acts of kindness? In keeping with the understated and humble, it’s not really for us to know- except for when we are recipient of such gestures. My best teachers could never have known the extent of all I learned from them. The expression, “pay it forward” is something a person can do, however modest that gesture might be. But of course I want to do great things! I’ve tenaciously cultivated myself to achieve and inspire. Preparation and endurance crave tangible fulfillment. How, when, and if that materializes continues to be a mystery. So does not knowing what to reasonably expect. But action and motion must move in a forward direction. Rather than to expect to solve sweeping problems in a fell swoop (few can do that), I can manage in measure with small steps. In this light, lowly attains great importance. There is discoverable divinity in the ordinary, and in this light we see light. Plainness can conceal complexities. Consider the needed effort to pare many disparate ideas down to a concept- and to be easily comprehended! The big work en route to humility, simplicity not to be mistaken for smallmindedness.