Heroes Not Zombies

There’s a climbing plant covering an archway at our front gate. As we moved in here just in December the garden is completely new to us. In the middle of winter it’s hard to know which plants are alive but sleeping and what exactly some of them are.

So, as Spring arrives, the garden is full of surprises and discoveries.

It seems that this climber is a wild clematis and it’s suddenly covered with these beautiful dark red little flowers. They are about the size of my fingernail.

When a flower is as small as this it draws you in close to see it more clearly, and that drawing you in makes you pause, take your time and linger a little. All of which heightens the pleasure of the encounter.

I often mention the importance of uniqueness and diversity but this little flower reminds me of another important life principle – small is beautiful.

It must be over forty years since I read Schumacher’s book entitled “Small is beautiful” but its central theme has stayed with me throughout my life. He promotes the importance of human sized organisations in that book. It’s a counter idea to that of “economies of scale”, of “mass production”, and “mass consumption”.

Since moving to France I’ve been struck by the number of small, family businesses, whether they are a local boulangerie or café bar, or a skilled craftsman. I’ve seen many interviews with people who are passionate about their work or business but almost always there’s an emphasis on there being more to life than work. Of course there are huge businesses and chain stores here, but there is still something smaller, something more human scale. I like that.

Small is Beautiful also applies to social and political organisation. I often think that a lot of our problems exist because there’s too great a distance between those who make the decisions and the rest of us. Time and again in crises, from the pandemic, to floods, to poverty and waves of migration, it’s ordinary people and local communities who show human beings at their best, instinctively trying to help those in need. Whilst the political and economic elites, with power over millions, seem riddled with greed, corruption and narcissistic selfishness.

Small is beautiful.