This I Believe

This I Believe

The Power of the Insignificant

Driving to work one February morning 35 years ago, I passed a herd of Black Angus cattle in a pasture. I had driven by these same cows daily, but this time I saw something that gave me pause. A tall, white bird was sitting on the back of one of the cows. I pulled over and looked carefully. There were 20 birds mixed in with the cattle. Several sat on backs; others wandered between and underneath cows. Later that day, during my lunch break, I went to the local book store and bought the small, Golden Book of North American Birds. I quickly identified the critter, the cattle egret. Several weeks after buying the book, I purchased binoculars. The binoculars opened my eyes to dozens of species of birds in my own backyard I had never noticed before. Soon I had a new and bigger bird book and a hobby that I still enjoy after 35 years.

Ten years later a student at the boarding school where I taught left a beat-up mountain bike behind the dorms when he went home at the end of the school year. I rescued the bike, put new tubes in it, and started taking mourning rides. Today I am an avid biker. I find peace, excitement, joy, satisfaction, and great exercise riding.

Two inconsequential events·stopping to look at birds on a cow and using an abandoned bike for a morning ride·enriched my life. How important is the apparently insignificant?

When I was in college, a friend wanted to introduce me to a family he had met. (You can’t believe this family,) he said. (Ten kids, no money, but they are fat happy.) They rented a rundown farm south of town, and my friend asked me to join him in helping them put up some hay. We worked for a home-cooked meal, which wasn’t a bad wage considering the college fare we normally ate. As we drove home that night, my buddy said, (Did you watch that couple. I bet he made love to her ten times while we were there.) I hadn’t noticed, but I did a quick mental review. They joked together constantly; he frequently patted her hand as he walked by. Together they fixed the meal, cleared the table, and washed the dishes. Those little actions were indeed ‘love making.’ They proclaimed (I love you) louder than any words, louder even than diamond rings and Caribbean cruises.

Guy Maupassant once wrote, (The most insignificant thing contains some little unknown element. We must find it.) I believe that the unknown element is power, the power to enrich our lives. I believe the secret of happiness lives in openness to the small and insignificant.