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Lately, I’ve been thinking about goodness and smallness and the relationship between them. Probably a response to several points of stimuli: our ongoing explorations in unit sizes, the “Wow!” I experienced looking at the amount of beauty, life and creativity that got packed the space of a parking spot at our temporary park on J Street, and the whole “less is more” aspect of eco-urbanism. So, I’ve started a kind of mental treasure hunt for examples of small things that are just really, really good. Here’s a few along the more elemental nature…

A Pinch of Salt.
We see this all the time on recipes and I’ve always wondered if that pinch really makes a difference. I mean, its just a pinch, right? But I recently had a boiled egg without that pinch and, whoa, won’t do that again. Small amounts of the right ingredient carry a lot of flavor mileage.

A Seed.
We just cut down the three cherry tomato plants in our raised beds that sprawled out to cover a space of 10 feet by 15 feet and were about 5 feet tall (and still growing). It was truly baffling to remember the tiny seed that I poked into the soil last spring, not to mention the buckets of orange and red fruit we pulled from its vines over the last 2 months.

A Book
Like this one in our library… Its still hard to beat a book for efficient design and the profoundness of its impact as a technological innovation.

A Kind Word.
So this will inevitably come across sounding really cheesy… but have you ever had just the worst, mess of a day… and then someone came along and said one nice thing. It wasn’t anything elaborate: no speech, no shiny plaque or award came with it. In all likelihood, it was just a simple statement– four of five words someone dropped in your day like a cherry blossom (another “small = good” example). It may even have been something really trivial– in my case, someone told me I have nice teeth… huh? –but it can just re-frame your whole perspective. Suddenly the mountain of mess melts and you regain your personal dignity and your footing for the day. Cuz’ heck, you’ve got nice teeth.

Mitochondria
I know… sudden jolt there… the touchy-feeliness just needed some counter-weight…

Anyways, these microscopic organisms (pictured above) are generally referred to as cellular power plants… so you could say they are the power source behind every living thing in this world… that’s a hefty impact for something that is 1-10 micrometers in length. And they are an example of endosymbiosis, which is just a cool word to know and a cool concept to think about, especially relative to “sustainability” and eco-urbanism.

Incidentally, mitochondria offer a lot more along the eco-urban parallel line of thought…such as their uber-dense matrix design…

Bigness as a Concept
I think our cultural value for “bigness” is quickly losing social capital, at least I hope some of the trends I’m seeing point toward this… its a needed shift if we’re going to make our cites better and live healthier lives.

Of course, I don’t want to come across as discounting “bigness” completely. I just think a redirection of energy is required. What I’d like to see is a channeling of our love of bigness away from “things” and towards “dreams” and “actions.” But even this isn’t always necessary… I”m thinking of the (oft-used, albeit still true) Helen Keller quote:

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. — Helen Keller

Then again… I don’t think Helen could have become what she did without some big dreaming… one doesn’t redefine blindness for the world without some seriously large inner vision.

Jason