Every year since I was about 12, I have read through The Lord of the Rings.
Well, that’s not completely true. There was that bleak period in the mid-aughts that I didn’t read the books for the better part of ten years. But when I was a teenager, I was in a constant state of reading the books.
I would take the first book out of the library and read it. When I was finished with the book, I would take it back and grab the second book, then do the same for the third.
When I was done the third, I would take it back, and check out the first book.
This is partially why I am such an advocate for public libraries. At the time, I am not sure the concept of owning a book was something I understood. Oh, sure, there were books at home—the World Book Encyclopedias, a dictionary, my dad’s Criminal Code books (he was a cop) and others, but I had no desire to own the books for myself. I just wanted to read them.
This is not an editorial about how big a nerd that I am (though I am; these days, in addition to The Lord of the Rings, I also read The Hobbit and The Silmarillion) or about obsessive behaviour.
Instead, I wanted to talk about one of the main themes of the book which is that the deeds of the small and unnoticed can change the world.
In the story, a Hobbit—a creature that stands about three feet in height and who lives in a land that is nearly untouched by the world around it—takes up the task to destroy the one ring of the enemy, who invested much of his power into the ring, then had it cut off his hand thousands of years ago before it falls into the hands of our main character (yes, I know, I am deliberately leaving out details; this is not a synopsis, but a quick overview to get people onto the same page).
This tiny creature from the backwaters of the Shire is given the task of sneaking into the enemy’s land and tossing the ring into the fires of Mount Doom, because if the ring were given to a mighty warrior or great leader, they would most likely decide to take on the dark lord head to head, and in taking up the ring, be corrupted by it. Indeed, one of those great leaders says “Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, and not just because I’ve been reading these books.
No, yesterday I was listening to a podcast from a show called the Happiness Lab, and the topic of convesation was the joy of giving, and how tiny donations to charity not only make the giver feel good (it is the Happiness Lab, after all), but also how many small donations, when taken together, can have a big impact.
Earlier this year, the Happiness Lab, in conjunction with author John Greene (best known for his novels, Like Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars, but who published a non-fiction book called Everything is Tuberculosis earlier this year).
Tuberculosis has been treatable since the 1950s, but, unlike other diseases like smallpox—which has effectively been eradicated by a global vaccination campaign—and polio—which has nearly been eradicated, again by a vaccination campaign, tuberculosis, or TB, is still the disease people die of most (after Covid-19 took top spot for a few years there), with over a million people dying of the diseasse every year.
Between Greene and his multiple podcasts and Dr. Laurie Santos’ the Happiness Lab, over $100,000 was raised, made up mostly of donations of five dollars here, ten dollars there, with the express intent of helping people dealing with TB.
You might be one of those anti-vaxxers and believe the terrain theory of disease prevention. That’s okay. You don’t have to donate to an organization that spreads vaccinations.
One of the key tennets of the terrain theory is that microbes are oppotunistic, and take advantage of people who are living out of balance: too much stress or poor nutrition.
Poor nutrition? There are plenty of organizations out there that help with that. Indeed, of Canada’s top ten rated charities, according to Charity Intelligence Canada, three of them are food related—Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Daily Bread Food Bank and Food for Life, while a fourth (Lifewater Canada) helps improve access to safe drinking water in Haiti, Liberia, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Still too…health-focused? Maybe you’d prefer to donate to the Citizen’s Foundation, a Pakistani charity that educates children, particularly those from low-income families, providing high-quality education for girls in rural and poor areas of Pakistan, where girls from low-income families have the lowest rate of education. Or maybe donate to the Wikipedia Foundation to help them keep the servers running.
If you want your giving to be more local, there’s the local food bank. While the cover story is all about the recent food drive, that is not the end of their need.
Or you might decide to donate to South Peace Community Resources Society, whose local office offers services for women and children experiencing violence, victims of crime.
Other registered charities locally include the Forever Young Society, the Tumbler Ridge Public Library Association, the Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation and more.
You can even donate to charities that aren’t offically registered, like the Tumbler Ridge Youth Services Society or the Tumbler Ridge Mountain Bike Association, to help build their new trails, if that’s something you feel passionately about.
You don’t have to donate a lot to make a difference. Sometimes $10 to the local food bank is enough to keep a family fed for a few more days, long enough to get back on their feet.
Because a little is a lot if a lot give a little.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
