The Little Things…

Many years ago, as he was working in a London laboratory, Sir Alexander Fleming observed the retarding action of an unidentified mold on a colony of bacteria. It was a little thing that many might have missed. But he recorded in his journal: “I was sufficiently interested to pursue the subject.” And so penicillin came into use among the medicines of mankind.
In a sense, there aren’t any little things in life. Everything could be considered to have some significance. In the unceasing search for metals and minerals the prospector looks for the outcroppings⎯for the surface evidence of what he hopes to discover beneath the surface. And in appraising people, in appraising character, one would surely watch the surface evidence⎯the symptoms⎯of what someone else would do under various situations and circumstances, all of which would add up to an indication of what one would likely be inside himself.
Of course, sometimes outcroppings aren’t as significant as they seem. Sometimes the vein runs out, or proves to be just a pocket; or sometimes from small surface evidences are found values that are deep and enduring. But largely men may be judged by the outcroppings, by the symptoms, by conduct and speech and actions and attitudes. And in determining the big things, the fundamental honesty, the deep quality of character, one cannot safely assume that the small things are not significant.
The small things can make or break a friendship. The small things can make a home happy or unhappy. The small things can make or break a career. The small things can make or break a marriage⎯such small things as sarcasm, bad judgement in humor, a shady tale, an abusive tongue, boasting, the social deceptions, the little lies, the ignoring of obligations, the small partaking of things unwisely, the small departures from principle.
When a person subscribes to a set of standards, and then departs a little, and says that it doesn’t matter much⎯it may be considered as an outcropping of character. When dealing with symptoms, there may be no such thing as a small thing⎯for many small things must add up to the total of what a man is inside himself. And we should not attempt to justify a flaw with the false philosophy that the small things don’t matter much, because indeed they do⎯ as symptoms of what a person is inside himself.