“The great can contain the little, but by the laws of nature there is no way that the little can contain the great.”
NATALIA GINZBURG, THE LITTLE VIRTUES
One helpful aspect of the big/little virtue template is its focus on priority. In her essay, Ginzburg is adamant that little virtues aren’t problematic because they are bad, rather they are problematic only when they aren’t moderated by big virtues. The trouble starts when we mis-order or equate big and little virtues.
Here’s a battle between big and little virtues that I bet a lot of us feel: the call to engage the eternal, versus the call to only engage the relevant.
By eternal I mean things that inform but ultimately transcend our own historical and personal moment–history, contemplation, and service. The eternal leads us to consider the present moment in the context of the past and future. The relevant, on the other hand, is trendy, immediate, addictive in its emotional intensity.
Both the eternal and relevant represent a part of reality. But to only engage the relevant is to be locked into a defensive posture, and defensiveness is the hallmark of little virtues. The eternal, on the other hand, asks us to take a moment out of time, out of reaction, not to swaddle us in ignorance but to strengthen us with perspective.
To re-phrase the beginning quote, the eternal will always inform the relevant, but the relevant will never provide a complete map to the eternal. And if we’re shaped primarily by the relevant then we are without bearings that outlast the moment, we think and we act without perspective. Worst of all we are exhausted and weakened by the emotional intensity of relevance, our “awareness” slowly corrupts and degrades our ability to respond constructively to the present moment.
It’s a great help to me to frame the relevant within the context of the eternal–to consider engagement with the relevant a small virtue, and engagement with the eternal a big virtue. It’s helpful to connect with the broader history of humanity through deep and contemplative reading, to be reminded that living in a chaotic time doesn’t make us exceptional, it makes us ordinary.
To take a daily pause from the relevant is to engage with a larger story, to find insight into the present by learning from the past and sharing in a larger vision for the future.
“Wisdom, I conclude, is not contemplation alone, not action alone, but contemplation in action.”
JOHN DUNNE
This post is part of a short series on Natalia Ginzburg’s The Little Virtues. You can read the first post here.
