For Want Of A Nail

For want of a nail, a shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, a horse was lost.
For want of a horse, a rider was lost.
For want of a rider, a battle was lost.
For want of a battle, a war was lost.
All for the want of a nail.

Today, it is popular to say, "Don't sweat the small stuff!"  Like many cliches, I think it depends on the perspective.  As you can see from my lead-in, whoever first wrote these lines understood the need to sometimes examine the "small stuff".

A couple of the schools, that I serve with my bus, have metal covered walkways between buildings and from one door to another.  In the spring of the year, barn swallows have taken to building their nests in the rafters, above the lights, and anywhere else they feel safe.  Some folks, adults and children, pay them no mind.  I love them.  They work so hard to build secure nests and lay their eggs.  As near as I can tell, both parents take part in sitting on the nest and in feeding the hatchlings.  They don't seem to have many enemies who can reach the nests and I enjoy watching fuzzy heads raise up to greet a feeding.  Most new sparrows have left the nest by now, but there are still a few left hatching and feeding.  Here is the small thing that has me a bit disturbed.  Today, these walkway covers were being pressure washed; birds, nests, fledglings, and all.  It is just a small thing.  The world won't miss a few more sparrows, will it?  I can't help but wonder, why couldn't this job be left for a couple more weeks?  Didn't anyone care or not want to "sweat the small stuff"?

You already know that I have a very liberal bent.  What you also ought to know is that for these couple of examples, there is at least one other side, but neither side causes many folks to sweat the small stuff.

In Columbine, Colorado, two students killed or wounded more than 30 at a high school before committing suicide.  From my view point, if guns were very much harder to obtain, perhaps this tragedy would not have occurred.  It is hard to imagine hacking that many to death with bayonets!  Still we continue to argue over gun control.  Most would say, "It wouldn't happen here.  Why sweat the small stuff?"

We sit in Congress and vote to tell a woman what she legally can and cannot do with her body.  I may be rare, I just don't know, in that I would not support abortion as an easily available means of childbirth prevention, but I absolutely would not put myself in the position of trying to tell any woman what she may or may not do in regards to abortion and her own body.  This has to be a choice between the woman, her doctor, and her God.  Yet, since abortion decisions do not and will not be a part of most of our lives, we are unwilling to make a strong statement or take a firm stand.  We just don't "sweat the small stuff."

School bullying can be terribly destructive (witness the docu-drama just lately at the theater - well worth seeing if you have a chance).  Most of us would say, "my son (or daughter) isn't a bully," or "my son isn't being bullied," or "I don't even have kids in school," or "don't we pay people to look after things like that?"  If it doesn't directly impact us, we just don't "sweat the small stuff", although we might well begin to prepare for another Columbine.

I can't bring about world peace, but I can be more friendly to one person.  I can't stop world hunger, but I can see that one more child is adequately fed each day.  I can't save every sparrow, but I can write a letter explaining the problem as I see it - maybe the solution is as simple as nicely calling attention to the problem.  I can't help but feel that the world would slowly, but surely, become a better place if we all find an appropriate way to "sweat the small stuff."