Small things

If you think about it, you'll notice that life consists, mostly, of small things.

No, seriously. We are used to thinking about atoms, even when we can't see them, and mankind has imagined them with very different shapes through the ages. It's been just a few decades (moments in human history) since we first really started to believe in their existence. We know that, many levels of abstraction below our macroscopic lives, in the end everything is made up of atoms. To be precise, mostly atoms coming from the debris of dead stars.

Our lives can also be divided into smaller pieces. Work, friends, family, ourselves. And each piece can be divided further. Until we come down to... small things.

We can ignore atoms most of the time, with no efect whatsoever on our macroscopic physical world. One can live a whole life without even knowing anything about atoms. We tend to think that we can ignore small things and manage our lives on a macroscopic basis. But that's not true.

Small things are like many tools. Isolated, they seem not to be useful for any big achievement; they serve only a modest purpose. But almost every one of them can be used to even take a life. Airport authorities seem to have become really aware of this these days.

Unconsciously, we are very good at using small things to get depressed, worried or angry about. But we are unable to use most small things for their intended, modest purpose. We don't let them play their role in building up our lives. If we did, they'd have an overwhelming effect on our mood. But when we think about it, we feel embarrassed, like being caught reading a self-help book (is this post a self-help post? Maybe.).

Life is not intended to work on a big goals basis. I'ts small things what make a difference. What make us happy or unfortunate. And small thinghs, just like atoms, for all practical purposes, are there only as far as we think about them, and look exactly like we imagine them.