Whatever May Come, Part 1

Two years ago, I wrote about my favorite book series, The Malazan Book of the Fallen, and what I believe its core fantasy to be: “that anyone, no matter weak, no matter how small, can change the world.”

Is this just a fantasy? Or can we make it a reality?

In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, the main character is forced from her comfortable, reclusive home, out into a world thrown into chaos. In the face of it all, what does she do? Embrace that there will always be change. And then, shape it.

The big question, though, is: where do we begin shaping? What are the “right” places to touch, to move, to shape, to groove? Where is the trim-tab,¹ the small change that will make future changes more possible? Yes, and! How might we² maximize our impact? (Impact-maxxing could be the next big thing…as long as we can still get rich while doing it.)

To play with the wisdom of the late David Graeber, I believe that we live our reality, every day, and we can just as easily live it differently.

We must begin with what is in front of us, and that the large is just the sum of many iterations of the small. By changing the small, and proliferating those changes, spreading them on the winds, the waters, in conversations and in our homes, this fractal chaos will change into something we hardly recognize.

It is a choice: in some cases to live by new values, and in others to more fully embrace the values to which we so vocally aspire. And we need not agree on every aspect of a better world. Even the best-laid plans will be lost to the chaos of time. If we each push, just a little - and maybe a lot, in aggregate - we can change the world.

This is our project: to live differently, one inch at a time.³