Bigness—Why the Obsession?
by James Banzer

   Americans are obsessed with bigness. Big cars, huge high definition televisions, big selling books, top songs, blockbuster hit films, big box department stores; they all capture our attention. A big enough segment of the population likes the Whopper and the Big Mac to make those brand names huge sellers for Burger King and McDonald’s. Even kiddos like their Big Red. 

  The people who sell things big cry out for us to buy. Sometimes external forces intervene to put an end to it. Recent higher gasoline prices have encouraged us not to drive those monstrous sports utility vehicles. The food police have used their influence to stop McDonald’s from selling super-sized meals and Wendy’s from selling biggie-sized fries. But we comply in thinking small only when we are forced into it. 

   It’s difficult to think small when everyone else thinks big. Yet just because it’s big doesn’t necessarily make it good to indulge. In these times, very few people seem to pause for a nanosecond to take note of things small.

   It was different when we were young. Children through the ages have noticed little things. The Big Red notwithstanding, there is still the yearly calendar milestone when kids spot their first lightning bug. What child doesn’t like to study the little rolly polly bug, or the ants as they build their hill made of thousands of tiny grains of sand? Kids spot the cracks in the sidewalk, and they still recite the “step on a crack and you’ll break your mother’s back” phrase. 

   It does not hurt any of us to occasionally return to seeing things as through the eyes of a child. There’s a world of unnoticed joy to be found in simplicity.

   Not so long ago, people would note the little things. There were the joys of hearing from a neighbor that the first robin of spring had been spotted gathering worms out in the backyard. Then lifestyles speeded up. We stopped looking for the small things.

   Those who first crossed North America by foot, horse and wagon surely noticed both the small and the big. The pioneers who traversed westward had it rough. Life spans were short. Their very existences were struggles to survive. They did not have the TV, radio, newspapers, movies, Internet, CD players, iPods, BlackBerrys and all those other things screaming for attention. The focus by necessity was on their survival and simplicity. 

   Those early pioneers must have had a keen appreciation for life. If we could go backwards in a time machine and join them on their rugged ride west, we might learn something. We just might look for the small, simple pleasures. That time machine is within all of us. We only need to take a moment to find it.


121106

Archive
__________________________________________________________

James Banzer has enjoyed a long career in broadcast news and is now writing on his observations about the world around us. He is currently residing in Louisville, Kentucky. You may send an e-mail to him at  jamesbanzer@yahoo.com .