The Small and the Brief

There is not enough praise for smallness in this world, for brevity.

We tend to think bigger is better. Baby grand vs. spinet. Four-bedroom vs. cottage. Ford F150 vs. Toyota Tacoma. Supersize vs. small fries. 

Whatever happened to less is more? The spinet requires less dusting and space; the four-bedroom, more maintenance (and dusting!); the Tacoma is easier to park and the Supersize? Well. We all know what happened to the Supersize.

As we began our teacher inservices last week, I received some praise. More than one person mentioned they liked the way I'm so vocally time-conscious at faculty and IEP meetings; I keep everyone on track, so our meetings are short. You know when comic strip characters feel proud, little rays emanate off of them in arced lines, sometimes tipped in stars? That's what I looked like walking around all afternoon. Beaming. 

As I drove home from work, anticipating the students' return to school (a Thursday start, those two days so brief and breezy), I admired the fuel efficiency of my compact Versa and thought it was time to [concisely] list some little things I love. 

Smaller everything.

Bichon Frises (I used to want a Lab). 

2nd graders (I used to like high-schoolers) (That's a bald-faced lie - I've always preferred non-hormonal people who are shorter than me).

My temper (no, wait, I don't mean it's shorter - that would be scary - but I don't lose it as often, which is some kind of shrinking, right?).

A novella by Julian Barnes (163 pages) (read in an afternoon). Compare this to an 849-page novel by an author I won't embarrass by naming (I'm speaking of you, "Richard Bachman") (in three weeks of my life that I wouldn't mind having back).

My flash drive. To store anything approaching 4gb in 1988, you needed a whole refrigerated room full of disks the size  of car wheels.

The size of your thumb.

14 " (and about 10 lbs).

The distance across the state in which I live (SC: 273 miles; TX: 821 miles). (What makes that special? Mountains to the sea in 3 hours or less!)

My cellphone's better than Gordon Gekko's.

The time it takes the USPS to get a letter from South Carolina to Colorado: 1,800 miles in 2 days.

and…

Postcards. 

Duh.

(I really, really like the word "duh.")