something little today

I've been thinking about something I read in this article about Mr. Fred Rogers of the television show Mr Rogers' Neighborhood.  

Here's what captivated me:

Rogers heard that before 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on his classmates at West Paducah's Heath High School...the boy had promised to do something "really big" the next day at school.  Rogers said, "Oh, wouldn't the world be a different place if he had said, 'I'm going to do something really little tomorrow?'"

I keep thinking about it because a lot of bicycling to work feels so little.  It feels little when someone driving a big heavy car is screaming at you from their window.  It feels little when you see the number of people who are driving their cars, who won't even entertain the idea of getting out of their cars, who are casual about their potential to hurt someone else.  It feels little when you watch your own children bicycling and you are worried that someone in an SUV will come around a corner and take one of your children away from you forever.  It feels little when your husband pedals away and you want to see him again that evening.  Bicycle commuting can feel very little when I read the news reports of the vanishing glaciers and the disappearing Maldive islands and the coming extinction of the Polar Bears and all I have to offer is a little time on my bicycle.  

One little by itself is meaningful.  It's not less in value than something just because it is smaller.  

A single little idea can fan out and become a bigger idea.