The Law of Small Things

We are living in a time when dishonesty and duplicity are common in our public institutions, our workplaces, and even in our personal relationships. But by recognizing and resisting the small, seemingly inconsequential ways we make moral compromises in our own lives, we can repair the tear in our social and moral fabric.

Most people believe that integrity is something you “just have” and as “good people,” we think we are naturally doing “the right thing.” We are certain we act with integrity when it counts, even as we breach integrity every day in ways we dismiss as “small.” The Law of Small Things depicts these and other illusions we deploy to appear to act with integrity without actually doing so.

The Law of Small Things exposes how our culture encourages the breach of integrity through an array of “permitted promise-breaking,” a language of clichés that equates self-interest with duty, and the “illusion of inconsequence” that excuses small breaches with the breezy confidence that we can fulfill integrity when it counts. Ultimately, Brody challenges the prevailing notion that integrity is a possession you hold permanently. No one “has integrity” and no one is perfect in practicing it. What we have is the opportunity to uphold promises and fulfill duties in each situation that faces us, large and small. Developing skill in the practice of integrity relies on missing the mark as much as hitting it. The practice of integrity is our roadmap across unknown terrain on a pathway beyond our limitations and toward personal authenticity; toward knowledge of who we are-not in the way the culture defines us, but in the way we truly know ourselves to be.