We are always being encouraged to look at the big picture, however, I recently found a great deal of comfort in looking at the small picture instead.
I have always loved Norman Rockwell’s 1943 illustrations of Franklin Roosevelt’s four freedoms done for the Saturday Evening Post. My favorite drawing has always been the one depicting Freedom of Speech which shows a man speaking at what one instinctively knows is a New England town hall meeting. He is dressed in an open neck shirt and a casual jacket and is expressing his views as his fellow citizens look on. I had thought that kind of democracy was a thing of the past, as our public forums make us seem more and more divisive. And maybe we are more divisive, at least in the big picture.
However, recently my husband and I had occasion to visit a small, western town with a population of about 700. We pulled off the main road, and quite by accident discovered a side street filled with many interesting shops displaying local artistic talent. We engaged with one of the artists in her store commenting on the fact that there should be a sign out on the main road, letting the passing traffic know what was just a few hidden blocks away. She then gave us a lively account of the local town meetings in which it was decided to pave the street instead of erect a sign; of a new bar, the patrons of which the one lone policeman was having a hard time containing; and a description of the mayor and where he stood on various issues. She seemed to bear no one a grudge, and was planning on attending another town meeting that week to bring up the idea of a sign again. And this time she felt she had the votes on her side. One got the feeling that true democracy was still alive and well at this very local level, raising my spirits considerably. In her artistically bright red hair, and long flowing clothes this small town resident could have been a modern image for Freedom of Speech.