for Griffin, our minnow rescuer

It’s a hard world for little things. 
― Davis Grubb, American novelist

Last week, the water level in our pond had risen from recent rains, and the overflow traveled through a culvert under the pond dam into my grandson’s yard. There it built up steam, cascading through the grass, down the hill, and into the cattails in a large ditch near the highway. Wearing rubber boots, Griffin traced the water’s path, occasionally stomping in the water-sodden grass. Until he crouched, more closely inspected the small stream and announced, “Hey, there are minnows in the grass! They won’t live without water! We can save them!”

Sure enough, hundreds of minnows had been–and were currently being–deposited into the grass along the small stream. Some were furiously flopping, their silvery blue bellies flashing in the sun. Some had already met their Maker, and some were traveling down the center of the stream towards the ditch. With a plastic cup to scoop and a Folger’s coffee can to transfer the living back to the pond, Griffin got to work. Soon, we were all crouching to locate live minnows for rescue. No one had the heart to tell him that those he rescued and returned to the pond would undoubtedly become lunch for the growing school of bass that lived there. And certainly, no one had the heart to suggest that saving a handful of minnows was a futile endeavor, a small and negligible act. In the whole scheme of things, rescuing five coffee cans of minnows does not a hero make.

And yet, perhaps this is precisely what’s wrong with our world, a world in which the big, larger-than-life acts performed by big, larger-than-life folk are much more likely to be commended. Those of us in the peanut galleries have grown to expect that our small contributions may be necessary but are unlikely to garner attention. Small acts are literal minnows who take refuge in aquatic plants, while prize-winning tuna and marlin flaunt their stuff before charter boats of trophy-seekers. Like my grandson, Griffin, you must have eyes to spot small things and a heart to do small acts, even if others do not.

Recently, I watched a feature film, Alone in Berlin, that received mixed critical reviews and sadly, that was not a box office hit. This film portrayed the true story of a German working class couple, Otto and Elise Hampel during Hitler’s regime. In 1947, their story was first made public in Hans Fallada’s fictional account, Every Man Dies Alone. The fact that I’d never heard of this couple or their story is testament to David Grubb’s claim that it’s a hard world for small things.

After learning of the death of Elise’s brother (in the novel and film versions, it is Otto and Elise’s son) who had been conscripted to Hitler’s military service, the couple committed to passively resisting Hitler and Nazism one postcard at a time. From 1940-1942, the Hampels wrote and distributed over 200 postcards on which they wrote passionate messages that urged their fellow Germans to resist and renounce Hitler, to refuse to cooperate with or to donate money to the Nazis, and to refuse military service. Placing these postcards in public places around Berlin, they hoped to incite others to condemn the Third Reich. These were small, individual acts committed by two ordinary people, and yet they were capital offenses, punishable by death. After two years of trying to identify and capture the infamous postcard authors, the Gestapo finally caught them. They were accused and convicted of preparing for high treason and were guillotined in the Plötzensee Prison on April 8, 1942.

I sat in silence after watching Alone in Berlin. I considered how for two years, two of the most unlikely heroes dedicated their ordinary lives to small, but heroic acts. Booker T. Washington, African American author and educator, wrote:

The older I get, the more I’m conscious of ways very small things can make a change in the world. Tiny little things, but the world is made of tiny matters, isn’t it?

A universal postcard, 5.8 by 4.1 inches, is indeed, a tiny little thing. But the Hampel’s distribution of over 200 cards was no tiny matter. When I consider their story, perhaps what moves me most is the Hampel’s wholehearted commitment to what they could do. They might have justified doing nothing, for they were simply two working class individuals with no real credentials or power. After all, what could an ordinary couple really do to resist the political and military leviathan that had become the Third Reich?

American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.

It seems that the Hampels were not troubled with great ambitions. They embraced their simple tools of resistance. Each handwritten postcard enraged the Gestapo. They were so successful in their small things, that they escaped detection and continued their resistance for two years.

I would do well to take a lesson from the Hampels and from my grandson, Griffin. Truthfully, I have often found myself troubled with great ambitions that ultimately paralyzed me from taking any action at all. I have languished in self-pity and self-consciousness, believing that I was powerless to make a significant contribution or to effect change. I often convinced myself of my smallness, a condition that I believed justified my inaction. Sadly, if I’d only put pen to postcard or picked up my coffee can and plastic cup, I might have done my part. And doing our individual parts, small as they may be, is infinitely important.

In the Talmud, the Jewish book of law, we read:

Whoever destroys a soul [of Israel], it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life of Israel, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.

This is the line that Steven Spielberg chose to feature in the closing scene of his film, Schindler’s List. In this scene as the war ends, Oskar Schindler has tearfully lamented that he couldn’t have saved more Jewish lives. A group of Jews he had saved presented him with a gold ring on which was inscribed: whoever saves one life saves the world entire.

There are some small acts that become big, public ones when they are reported, written into books, or featured in films. But so many–so very many–quietly live in the lives of ordinary people like you and me. And thank God that they do. For publicized or not, they matter deeply.

And so the next time that Griffin wants to save the minnows, we’ll rescue as many as we can until the sun goes down, and we can no longer see to scoop. We’ll set about saving one minnow life at a time and, by doing so, save the world of minnows entire. I understand how well these small acts define who Griffin is and who he will grow up to be. And, hard as the world may be for doers of such small things, I hope to be his biggest cheerleader and his faithful minnow-rescue sidekick.

Hampel postcard