The God of Small Things

                    “When we win, it’s with small things

                    And the winning itself makes us small.…”    -Rilke

 

Yes, but what about when we lose to small things?! That well describes my day, as the tiny little winding mechanism on my watch broke off when I went to adjust the time arriving at the SF Airport. Now the time is stuck in Brazil time and I’m subtracting 5 hours every time I look at it. So I finally decided to get it fixed. Ha! Fat chance!

 

It started off promising as my wife helped me dig up the phone number to a Russian guy who has fixed my watches before. I called the number, left a message and assumed he would call back.  I had such hope it would be as simple as that!

 

Now the afternoon began with a plan to meet an Orff student to discuss his new role in a jazz organization. When I called him ten minutes after our meeting time to see if he was lost, he said, “Oh, I thought we were meeting next Monday!” And he was in Fresno at the moment.

 

No problem, I would just walk from the meeting point in the park to the watch store in the Richmond and as I set off, the man called me back. When I described the problem, he assured me he could fix it. But he wouldn’t be at the store until 4:00. It was now 1:30. 

 

So I decided to just amble over slowly, listen to my Audible story and maybe there would be an eyeglass store where they might help me glue back the frame that had cracked when my glasses dropped on to the floor a week ago. I passed two such stores, but apparently, eyeglass stores are always closed on Monday. Who knew? So my next option was to get a new pair at the Walmart I passed, but when I walked it, five aisles of shelving were completely empty!! The store is closing in two weeks and was looking like the Apocalypse had come. 

 

Still two hours before the watch guy would be there, so I kept rambling and listening to my story on my phone—until I noticed that I had 9% charge left. Oops! Finally 4:00 came, I walked in and there he was. He looked at my watch for 2 seconds and said, “Oh, Timex. No, you can’t fix these. Get a new one.”

 

Aargh! I would have been happy, Rilke be damned, to win with small things, but I was striking out left and right. The God of Small Things just wasn’t on my side. Including when I ran for the N Judah bus and missed it and the next one was 20 minutes away. 

 

To make this pathetic First World rant worthy of your time, let me invoke the title as the title of a book written by the Indian author Arundhati Roy. A wonderful novel that takes place in Kerala, India, that lovely state where my wife and I lived for three months in 1979 while I was studying a drum. We came back from that trip, got married, pregnant and named our first daughter Kerala! 

 

I remember liking that novel and since then, have noticed various quotes from the author and admired her eloquence in advocating for Social Justice. So here’s a big thing at the end of all my small things, well-worth your time to consider, take to heart and live out.