It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.
Big Ambitions
Have you ever had big ambitions that didn’t come to pass? I have. For me it was to be a famous fine artist and to be a professor of Art at a University. I came close to reaching both but neither of those things happened. There are many reasons why. Most, but not all, had to do with me. Of course there were decisions about employment and gallery representation that were beyond my control and I don’t give those vagaries of fortune much thought. But I do think now and then about what I did control and how if I had done this or that differently maybe those things would have happened. When I do think in that way I have trained myself to quickly change focus and think instead about what I did accomplish.
Major/Minor
To use the metaphor of baseball, I didn’t make it to the major leagues but I did make it to the minor leagues. I was having local and regional exhibitions, being highlighted in local publications, getting a number of grants and awards and teaching at the community college level for 9 years. I helped found and lead a photography club for 8 years as the director of education, giving lectures and leading hands-on outings.
The result was that my art was seen and made an impact. My knowledge of drawing, photography, art and art history was given to hundreds of students. All that was wonderful and fulfilling just as it’s fulfilling for a minor league player to play for a crowd, no matter the size.
The Littlest Thing
But here is the ironic part. Who would figure that the littlest thing I ever did in art, the least consequential, the least impactful to the smallest group of people, the one where I was planting the littlest of seeds would be what got me the most fame and the greatest following.
And that is what you are looking at here. A Napkin. I started drawing on napkins in 1998 to put in my daughters’ lunches. It’s now 2025, 27 years later, and I am still doing it. I got national attention, I got local attention, I got invited to speak at conferences and to lead workshops. I sold work. I live streamed drawing napkins as hundreds of people watched from around the world.
My point in telling you this is to help you realize that no matter how seemingly unable you are to make big things happen, you are ALWAYS able to make little things happen. Doing something little isn’t defeat, it’s progress and it’s growth. Nothing big starts big. It starts as something little.
Many engaged in public affairs are often doing so by the mere act of paying attention. We aren’t at town hall meetings and we aren’t calling our representatives over every issue. But we are paying attention. And just like in so many areas of life, we think if we do something then everyone must do that same thing. I watch the evening weather forecast every night so everyone else probably does the same. But as we get older and wiser we realize that is a fallacy. It is not true that just because we do something everyone else does it.
This is especially true regarding public affairs and politics. I pay a lot of attention to it but I know many people who pay almost no attention to it. If I mention something egregious that a leader says or I mention a certain bill was passed there is a good chance they don’t know about it.
Sometimes I think that can be a blessing. It’s nice to just go about ones life and not be inundated by the constant noise of public and political activity. It can be distracting, distressing, disturbing. And more often than not, there is not a lot one can do about it. So why spend time paying attention to it?
Here’s why. Because there is evil in the world. My definition is this: Evil, like sin, is an attitude and an action that hurts, condemns, treats unfairly, cheats, murders, denigrates, and hates. But evil, unlike sin, is not only individual, it can be corporate, it can be organized and institutionalized. It can get big. Very big.
If you aren’t paying attention to the public life of your community, state, nation and world, then you might miss a lot of noise. But you will miss seeing evil being done. It might not affect you at first, but evil has a way of spreading and before you know it, the evil that was inflicted on the person who isn’t like you will be inflicted on the person who is like you and then on you. And then what will you do?
We often talk about how we can’t unsee something. Whether an assassination on TV, a bomb being dropped, or a predator attacking its prey, it sticks with us when we see something horrific. But what about how we see? That matters because whatever we actually see we see through the filter of our mhat tells us how to interpret what we are seeing. It tells us what to pay attention to, what to ignore, what to believe, what not to believe. It tells us what is good, what is evil, what is dangerous, what is safe.
There is a common theme in much of Christianity and that is seeing things through the ‘Christian world view’. It is how they see the world and how they think the world should be seen. If people saw the world that way, the correct way according to them, then the world would be a better place. It is a filter through which they interpret the world. All religions do the same as do political and social movements. We all have a point of view and I don’t see that as wrong, up to a point.
That point where I think it goes wrong is when all other world views are either ignored, ridiculed, condemned, hated, or dismissed. This usually happens not because those other world views deserve it but because the person doing the seeing is afraid or ignorant of those other world views.
What would happen if you weren’t afraid of others ways of seeing the world? What if you allowed yourself to see through those other filters? Would you become one of those people? Would you suddenly convert or abandon how you see the world? Evidence shows that is not the case. Just because you listen to someone, even someone with good arguments, does not mean you are required to overhaul your belief systems.
What most people who are open to ‘seeing’ other views actually do is understand better. I think that is a good thing.
Violence is a Confession of Ultimate Inarticulateness
It doesn’t matter if you agreed or disagreed vehemently with Charlie Kirk. You had the opportunity to debate and argue with him, or anyone else, about those issues, or about methods, character, truth, God or any other subject.
That was what he was doing when he was murdered – debating and arguing.
If you can’t or won’t educate yourself enough to do that, then the fault is yours, not his.
The same goes for ANYONE else you disagree with right, left, or center.
You don’t have the right to take your inability, that intellectual or emotional impotence, and murder someone because of it, no matter what absurd rationalization you cover it with.
Her eyes were closed during the sermon and I was worried about her coffee on the ledge so I decided she was worried about it too.
The Sermon About Money
I imagined her speaking one and thinking another.
The Sermon About Barabbas
The young women listening closely to the guest pastor preaching about Barabbas being set free instead of Jesus on the order of Pilate who washed his hands of the whole thing and went home to a good dinner.
Uh Uh Uh
Um
Um Ahh Hmm
The doctor studied the patient and diagnosed she was a snake and prescribed and apple a day
