How It All Began

How It All Began

I suppose the “One Small Good Thing” project started, without me realizing it, more than 20 years ago, when, as a high school senior, I first started deep diving into the story worlds of Raymond Carver.
 

As any English major worth her salt will tell you, there are writers that, early on, get deep in your marrow, your stem cells, your DNA. Long after you’ve gone through your Isak Dinesen phase, or William Faulkner obsession (when, for example, you sat up late reading and re-reading “Barn Burning”, incessantly talking to amused professors and indulgent friends about THAT RUG and ITS SYMBOLISM, and what genius Faulkner possessed to use it as he did to explore issues of family loyalty and racism)... long after that, when now you just pass the beloved yet dusty volumes on the shelf without really seeing them, they still have a deep power over your worldview. The words, the images, the themes and elements keep quietly replicating inside you. 

(If this sounds suspiciously like a horror novel, it's probably because I also had an unhealthy flirtation with Stephen King and Dean Koontz in 9th grade.)

Then, inexplicably, it all bubbles up, or bursts out, unbidden, like pussywillow buds in early March or freckles on your nose after a day in the sun. The words, the themes, the images are just waiting for the right moment to emerge.

Of all of Raymond Carver’s stories, the one that got deepest into my DNA, the marrow-iest of my marrow, was “A Small Good Thing.” It’s a remarkable story: a mother orders a birthday cake for her son, but when the son is hurt in a car accident she forgets to cancel the cake order. Not knowing this, the baker starts incessantly calling the grieving parents in the middle of the night for them to pick up the cake. The son dies, the mother confronts the baker to tell him to stop calling, and the baker begs for forgiveness. Then he offers her freshly baked cinnamon rolls, saying “Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this.”

I immediately connected to the story’s exploration of the power of simple human kindnesses – and how becoming aware of the fragility of life and closeness to death makes us reach out for connection with others.

More than that, it’s the phrase – a small good thing – that continues to bubble up for me, and that was the inspiration for this project.