A Ramble About Small Acts

I was reflecting on this quote today, "Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I've found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love." It's funny, I could have sworn this was actually a line from "The Lord of the Rings" novel, but it wasn't actually written by Tolkien. Instead it was a line from the Peter Jackson movie, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."
    If nature tells us anything, it tell us that the very large is made up of the very small. What we can see and touch, rocks, trees, other people are made up of atoms, which themselves are made up of even smaller particles. Living things are made up of cells so small they are invisible to the naked eye. Yet if even one thing goes wrong with the smallest cell or part of a cell, it can have drastic consequences for the whole organism.
     Small things, small acts of kindness, small acts of care, charity, and compassion for others matter. It may not seem like it at the time, but the impact you can have even from giving a child a cold drink on a hot day can have huge repercussions. But as powerful as a single, small act of kindness can be, many of them together can overpower even the greatest darkness and hatred.
     The same is true of the opposite. Small acts of selfishness can snowball. Small acts of fear, aggression, gluttony, and so on can have damaging repercussions far beyond their point of origin. And many of them taken together can become a gathering storm of darkness that can be apocalyptic.
     Humanity always stands at the precipice between the two. Frequently we only see the big things, the big acts of compassion or the big acts of selfishness and their obvious repercussions. But what we frequently fail to see are all the little ones which collectively lead up to the school shootings, wars, famine, disease, and so on. Or likewise that lead up to great acts of charity, lives saved, and so on.
     What we see in our lives, our homes, our communities, and the world at large today is a direct result of the collective accumulated actions of humankind as a whole, and our future, whether it be enlightened or plunged into darkness will be determined by those small, seemingly insignificant things we do every day.