This 2023, let the small things count

Even the little things can make a big difference.

But that’s not quite what we were told growing up. That is not how it seems. In a politically asymmetric world, where so little is given to so many and so much is held by so few, we are made to believe that anything short of monumental is minute. That only big changes count for something and, thus, only the big dogs have a say.

Take, for example, how every three to six years political candidates take the floor to quote the late Ninoy Aquino in saying: “The Filipino is worth dying for.” To be honest, I cringe whenever I hear them. These words speak volumes, yet are relegated to a catchphrase—a feel-good platitude which says little about anyone and with which no one can disagree.

True as these words are, as far as I am concerned they are simply stating the obvious. Certainly, our country and countrymen are worth dying for! At the same time, I can’t help but ask: Why exile our notions of sacrifice solely to the extremes?

I, for one, believed, as I still firmly believe, that each one of us has something to give, big or small. Though, admittedly, it was only recently in life that I came to truly appreciate how slight the distance is between one and the other. How even the small, when put together, may easily add up into something much, much bigger.

The ethos is nothing new, which I, in fact, first encountered while reading philosophy in the University of the Philippines way back when. I was studying Will Durant’s annotations on Nicomachean Ethics when I stumbled across a passage, often misattributed to Aristotle himself, which reads: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

More often than not, habits aren’t shaped in leaps and bounds but in small, gentle increments. So throughout my undergraduate life, I adopted what my brothers and I referred to as a “JOLT” attitude—a belief that big change can be made through “Just One Little Thing”—and found myself trying to effect change in the little ways an undergrad could.

I recall wanting to put up a needs-based scholarship fund to help incoming freshmen access tertiary education, but as a student-athlete with a university stipend of a mere P4,500 per UAAP season, I simply did not have the resources to do so. So instead, my brods at the Alpha Sigma Fraternity and I relied on a different asset, one available to us free of charge. We put our heads together, coordinated with congressman Quimbo of the 2nd district of Marikina, and taught free UPCAT review courses every weekend in the months of September and October at the Concepcion Integrated School, along J.P. Rizal.

Make no mistake, I had no illusions about the limited change that we were making. It is not as if we thought we had solved an education crisis or reinvented the wheel. But limited as it were, it was nonetheless real. So real, that some time in the following years, I was introduced to two young scholars finishing their studies at my alma mater. As it turned out, they were among our reviewees years prior.

It’s been said that great things are just small things brought together. Greatness, therefore, is not a status held still in time, but a practice, a pattern, a routine that is meant to be lived out. And I believe that there’s a lesson somewhere there we Filipinos can take forward in the coming year.

Chaos theory suggests that the flap of a butterfly’s wings may ultimately cause a tornado somewhere down time’s path. If we can ascribe that much change in an insect’s wings, all the more should we acknowledge the power of change in each other. And keep in mind, the difference we make need not only come in grandeur, but in graduated form. A small contribution to your local charity over time can mean a meal or two for those in need, while a short conversation with your neighbor can turn a frown into a much-needed smile.

A whisper can trigger an avalanche, and even a drop in the pond may ripple in ways we could never expect. This 2023, let us remember to not only count the small things, but to let the small things count.

Happy New Year!

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