The Bush and the Garden

I'm sure everyone's heard the old adage about how not one snowflake believes it's to blame for the avalanche, not one raindrop to blame for the flood.  This is largely why an accomplice to a crime is often held in the same guilt as perpetrators.  Punishment for a crime involving five criminals isn't divided evenly five ways.  Each criminal is held fully responsible for the crime.  Why?  It's because each one is equally responsible for the crime.  Each snowflake is fully responsible for the avalanche.  Each raindrop is fully responsible for the flood.

But just as snowflakes and raindrops think they're innocent of mass-destruction, let's consider the flip-side.  It is a sad reality of the world we live in.  Not one bush thinks it's to credit for the beauty of the garden.

Think about it.  No one questions why a World War II veteran should be credited for the defeat of Hitler and Japan, even though that veteran is just one of thousands who fought.  But so many people think that they are somehow insignificant in the world around them, that they are powerless to make a difference.  There are those who don't vote, and even those who isolate themselves from the rest of the world.  It's like a bush thinking that the garden would be just fine, or even better, without it.

The saddest part is that such thinking is contagious.  When one complains about not being as big and strong as a tree, as colorful as a flower, or as soft as the grass, others begin to think the same way.  Can you imagine a garden where all the bushes were lethargic and refused to show their leaves out of some conditioned inferiority complex?  Too many people ignore what can be accomplished by one person who stands up and chooses to make a difference.  Too many people ignore what one can do when accompanied by many.  Ask a skier who had to be rescued how insignificant one snowflake is.  Ask a farmer in a floodplain how insignificant each raindrop is.

The contagious thinking shouldn't be how inferior one is, but rather how important one can be.  There are many of us, and I am one.  I may not be the biggest, strongest, softest, most colorful, smartest, wisest, fastest, or even have the best personality.  But the garden would be less of a garden without me.  And I choose to make a difference.