“Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill. They arrived at Bill’s home first and Mark spent some time there also before returning to home. Their friendship grew, both graduated from junior high school. Finally the long awaited senior year came and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. “Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” asked Bill. “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stolen away some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realised that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life.”
This is a story in my collection. Don’t know wherefrom I got this. But I earnestly believe that when we help somebody or spent some time with somebody on creative ideas, we truly create history. These silly things could be quite insignificant to us. We think that big is strong and might is everything, but the adage says that small is beautiful. The difference something makes in life depends not on the size of a thing but the power embedded within. It is not a big mountain that burned Hiroshima and Nagasaki to ashes, but a small atom bomb. A small extension of charity, a small collection of kind words, a small deed of support ….. they make big differences in this universe. The theory of ‘morphic resonance’ says that even a minute change in the tiniest of atoms create simultaneous ripples all over the universe. Our inability to experience such micro changes is not a mighty reason to deny this. As human beings, what we have always ready with us are ‘small’ things only. Great people are never mountains of big bergs but oceans of small drops. Never miss out a chance to share the small things with you. Never miss a situation that would be of some help to another. The story also reminds us that everything we do in life counts, some way or the other.
