You Never Know When...

Pearls of wisdom show up in the oddest places...

Agatha Christie has been one of my favorite authors since middle school.
I couldn't read Nancy Drew mysteries before bed, but Agatha Christie murders never bothered me.

That said, none of her writing ever struck me as "words to live by" (no pun intended), except...
these few sentences from Towards Zero, where a man who tried, and failed, to kill himself, hears this from his hospital nurse:

"It may be just by being somewhere--not doing anything--just by being at a certain place at a certain time--oh, I can't say what I mean, but you might just--just walk along a street someday and just by doing that accomplish something terribly important--perhaps without even knowing what it was."

Wow!  How powerful is that??
But...why?
I think this bit of fictional conversation strikes two chords:

First, it seems everyone, at their core, has a deep, primitive longing to believe"my life matters."  It's a reason to get out of bed, to struggle through tough times, to take satisfaction in completing a task.  One's life doesn't even have to matter to another person.  It could mean caring for an animal, creating a beautiful garden where birds flock or promoting a cause. 

The effects of "my life doesn't matter" are easy to spot:  depression, despair, anxiety, addictions (to put reality on hold for a little while), and even suicide.  Conversely, believing  that one is needed, even just a little, by someone or something, is enough to keep people plugging along through pretty desperate circumstances. 

Second, there is boundless hope in the idea that, just by going through the motions of daily life, one might make a dramatic difference for the better.  "Even if I didn't accomplish anything today/this week/this month, just walking along the street tomorrow might accomplish something terribly important."  And if the idea of not knowing is ok, it's perfectly possible to believe one really is changing the course of history (in a very small way!) every day. 

Think of all the times you've heard, or said, "It was nothing, really."  Sometimes that patently isn't true, but other times...maybe it is.  Perhaps picking up a few groceries for a friend, along with your own, or smiling at the bus driver, or handing someone the mitten they dropped has an effect far beyond that moment. 

It's kinda cool, when you think about it.
You just never know when...