Can We Be Liberated from Pettiness?

"... I scuff At pettiness which plays so rough... Kick my legs to crash it off..." --Bob Dylan, "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

This past week I have been on another cleaning binge. Am throwing a lot and clearing shelves I haven't cleared in years. I am also finding a few things that I knew I had but no longer knew where they were.  Here are notes from a scrap of paper in one of my folders, followed by a few quotes elaborating on this theme.

1. So much of life is pettiness. Our lives are infected with it. 

2 As Pilgrims, how evade the snares/distractions of Vanity Fair?

3. Pettiness--my own life is lost in it. Is man a noble creature? Nobility comes from a high vision of man. We are not mere beasts, nor are we to be regarded as machines to be manipulated.

4 How liberate these masses so enslaved by pettiness? Not by throwing stones at their idols. What are the secret things they worship? What are the deep things of the heart that they seek?

* * * * *

"Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness."
~Francois de La Rochefoucald

"Pettiness is the tendency of people without large purposes."
~George Will

"If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life -- and only then will I be free to become myself."
~Martin Heidegger

"In the absence of a great dream, pettiness prevails."
~Robert Fritz

Related Link
A poem by Dorothy Parker titled Little Things can be found on this page titled The Urge To Commit Art.