Little Things

It’s funny how we take little things for granted.  Things you would never think twice about could be truly extraordinary to someone else.  Take for example my aunt and uncle visiting from southern California.  We had a thunderstorm over night.  It didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary to me or my family.  Thunderstorms are nothing new to Nebraska.  My aunt and uncle, though, were giddy with excitement.  They said they rarely even received rain back in the Los Angeles area.  What they did get was a few drops here or there.  To hear a full-fledged thunderstorm was more than they could have hoped.  They said they slept like babies.  I never would have thought a rain storm would generate such bliss.  Along the same lines, during their visit they couldn’t believe how green things were around here.  Once again in L.A. the scene is more like a desert.  The description they gave was horrific.  They have an orange tree in their back yard but it boggles my mind how it stays alive.  Such little things can make a profound impact.  When I moved here from Michigan I arrived a few months ahead of my wife.  One night I called her up and she asked if anything was different out here.  I said there were a couple small differences.  We had thought Omaha would be flat but it’s really hilly.  Also I told her it must get very cold in the winter because all the houses had attached garages.  Then I went driving through neighborhoods looking at houses.  When I would stop at a stop sign, people would wave to me.  Being from Michigan, I stepped out of my car and checked the tires to see which one was flat.  When they all turned out to be alright, I checked the rest of the car but it too was fine as well.  The pattern repeated itself over and over until I realized the people were just being nice.  In Michigan, if someone was waving at you there was a problem.  I think that perspective fuels expectations.  What you are used to determines the course of action you expect.  As a writer you can use this little tool to inject suspense into a story.  When the audience reads a part and expects a certain outcome you can really pull them in by changing that outcome.  It must be done in a subtle fashion and only occasionally.  Otherwise you tend to wear out the reader.