I’m into small changes. I’m currently working on reducing the impact my household has on the planet – I recycle, consume much less than I once did, am changing the way I eat. Today I’m even going to try to make my own butter. I really do believe in the power of small change. So it bothers me when I hear someone criticize people who are choosing to make incremental changes in their lives for not being a part of the bigger solution.
It’s not that I see the small changes as the solution, or even as a piece of the solution. I profoundly believe that we need change at a systems level, change that will fundamentally reshape the way that we live on this earth. But it seems like the issue is often framed as an either or thing, and I don’t think that small changes and meaningful solutions are mutually exclusive.
For me, systemic solutions are what we must strive to imagine, develop, and implement on a broad scale. Small changes are what you do on the way, because you don’t have much choice but to live while you’re getting there. Each small change or individual action, even in aggregate, is not going to save the world. If every single person recycled, we’d still be in trouble. If everyone stopped taking commercial flights, we’d still have huge problems. But those small changes – particularly if adopted on a widespread basis – will help buy us time. Time we need to catch up to where we need to be on a systemic level. Time to change the paradigm.
More importantly (perhaps?), I think small changes also pay off in our day-to-day life. Slowing down, living more consciously and reconnecting with our families, our communities, and our choices enriches us. You have to eat – why not do so consciously? If you’re going to consume, do so with self-awareness. In the same way you would hold a door open for someone or say please and thank you, we can strive for our lives to be acts of courtesy to the world. We need big, systemic change. But the little things we do make an extraordinary difference in our lives and the lives of those around us.
Sometimes I sit back and try to imagine a world in which each of us lives our daily lives with courtesy, consciousness and consideration. We help where we see a need, and in turn receive acts of generosity when we are struggling. We direct our energy consciously and deliberately towards a cause, whatever it may be for each one of us. In the meantime, rather than moving through the world haphazardly, we strive to give each interaction the full attention and respect it deserves.
It is absolutely possible to get distracted by the little things, and we cannot afford to think that by recycling that glass bottle or driving a hybrid, we’ve done our part to solve the problem. But I think we need to stop arguing about small changes versus big changes. It’s wasting our time and energy, and creating division where there ought to be unity. Small changes offer insufficient solutions for the problems we face, but they enrich our lives and communities in the present moment. What if small changes were just the way we live while we work to imagine and fight for a brighter future? What could our world look like if each action was a deliberate act of respect for our own lives and the lives of those around us?
Thumbnail Photo CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/
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Love this. People who begin with small changes are more likely to make them permanent.
I love this post as well, as someone who is trying to figure out how to be a part of the big changes in the future, the small changes are increasingly important to me now, particularly as I am surrounded by people who either don’t care or are too lazy to make even the small changes.
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