Sharing of Think Little

The following excerpt is from an essay titled Think Little. Wendell Berry, a Kentucky Farmer,

author, and social activist first published this with a collection of essays in the early 1970's. It is wildly relevant today. Thinking of ways we can positively impact the environment can be overwhelming. His advice, to "think little", is very encouraging and wise. Enjoy!

“For most of the history of this county our motto, implied or spoken, has been

Think Big. I have come to believe that a better motto, and an essential one now,

is Think Little. That implies the necessary change of thinking and feeling, and

suggests the necessary work. Thinking Big has led us to the two biggest and

cheapest political dodges of all time: plan-making and law-making. The lotus

eaters of this era are in Washington, DC, Thinking Big. Somebody comes up with

a problem, and somebody in the government comes up with a plan or a law. The

result, mostly, has been the persistence of the problem, and the enlargement and

enrichment of the government. But the discipline of thought is not generalization,

it is detail, and it is personal behavior. While the government is “studying” and

funding and organizing its Big Thought, nothing is being done. But the citizen who

is willing to Think Little, and, accepting the discipline of that, to go ahead on his own,

is already solving the problem. A man who is trying to live as a neighbor to his

neighbors will have a lively and practical understanding of the work of peace and

brotherhood, and let there be no mistake about it-he is doing that work. A couple

who make a good marriage, and raise healthy, morally competent children, are

saving the world’s future more directly and surely than any political leader, though

they never utter a public word. A good farmer who is dealing with the problem of soil

erosion on an acre of ground has a solid grasp of that problem and cares more about

it and is usually doing more to solve it than any bureaucrat who is talking about it in

general. A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and difficulty of mending his

own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are

insisting merely that the government and the industries mend their ways.”

-Think Little, an essay by Wendell Berry,

from a collection of essays titled A Continuous Harmony-1972