“Not a whit, we defy augury: there’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow,” said a fatalistic Hamlet to Horatio. “One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father,” reads the Christian new testament, “Look to the sparrow,” said the abolitionists & runners on the underground railroad, some too tired to go on, some with muddy, bloody, severed or gangrenous toes. Why look? Why assign a small thing such worth? Could it be that somewhere deep inside us we knew that they, the sparrows, and that we, the people can be so much more? Perhaps we had known it all along?
If there is great providence in the fall of a sparrow then is there not equal worth in her life? One only needs to cite the hope they gave those slave women and men running northward to freedom. For them the sparrow was a flying mascot, an embodiment of hope, …who knew that such a mass of inspiration could fit into such a small body?
Perhaps this is an analogy that in the smallest of things there is great worth. Perhaps it is an analogy that in the smallest of actions there is a groundswell of unseen and lasting change. Perhaps it is an analogy that deep inside the smallest of things anything is possible. Perhaps it’s also a challenge. A challenge to the excuses we make to avoid the enormity of our tasks at hand. A challenge to everyone who has said, “but I am only one person, what can I do?”
The answer to that question is much. Inside each of us is so much creativity, so many songs, and so much hope for future generations. It’s time that we recognize the seldom noticed worth in all that is around us, the sovereignty of the smallest ones we share our spaces with, and the limitless possibilities that we can make real when we wake up each morning.
The Sparrow Media Project is an open-ended publicity effort that serves to profile & promote projects by people who are experimenting with boundless possibilities for social change, through arts, activism, education, subversion, and song. We aim to educate others as to the beauty that is all around us, to the beautiful fire that sits inside all of us and to get involved and stay involved with whatever sparks that fire inside of you.
Let the history books note that we lit a match, set a fire, and did not flinch when we butchered Shakespeare… “There is great providence in the life of a sparrow.”
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