18th day -- The small things

Any of my former students can affirm that I love poetry. Dickinson, Whitman, Hughes, Spenser, Keats – wow. And of all secular poems, people are surprised that my favorite is this concise expression by William Carlos Williams:

So much depends on a red wheelbarrow
Splashed with rainwater
Beside the white chickens.

I like this poem because I can so vividly see this scene in my mind, but I think a lot of people don’t get it and become absorbed on trying to associate with using a wheelbarrow. And I like it because it captures the essence of poetry and of life. So much depends upon a person’s being able to notice the small things in life that are beautiful or striking or significant.

When I rode past this pastoral scene this misty morning while going with my son Tom to take his girls to school, I knew that I would drive back this way for a photo. In the huge, rolling expanse of the prairie, the bare, black tree standing in the middle of the small pond surrounded by a small herd of docile, white cattle was a scene too peaceful to ignore.

A person who can see the simple vignettes that make up the larger pictures is often also a person who notices the small things about people or the small details that make an occasion special or the small things that could ignite or defuse a conflict. So many really big things depend on someone’s paying attention to the really small things.