Small Courageous Actions to Shape the Year Ahead
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In a quiet Irish town in 1985, coal merchant Bill Furlong faces a life-altering choice: maintain the status quo or risk everything to do what’s right.
This is the heart of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, a novella that feels like it was written for anyone who’s ever faced an ethical dilemma in their work or life.
In this holiday episode, you’ll hear the quiet but powerful lessons this story holds for nonprofit leaders like you. Whether you’re fighting for funding, advocating for change, or simply trying to show up every day for your community, you’ve likely felt the tension between doing what’s easy and doing what’s necessary.
Skip Ahead:
(02:01) What a coal merchant in 1980s Ireland has to teach us about courage, compassion, and standing up to injustice
(04:19) How do the quiet, often overlooked moments in nonprofit and public sector work mirror acts of bravery in Small Things Like These
(06:28) What ripple effects could your smallest, most courageous actions have in the year ahead
Resources Mentioned
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Drew Reynolds: [00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Common Good Data podcast. I'm Drew Reynolds, and thanks for joining me on our holiday episode. To celebrate the holidays today, we're going to do something a little different. I wanted to share a reflection on the 2021 Short Novel and Booker Prize finalists, Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan.
It's a beautiful and short fictional story set in Ireland in 1985 in the days leading up to Christmas. It has a lot of lessons that pertain to the work of non profit and public sector leaders and is timely given that we're in the holiday season. While this podcast is about a novel written in the context of Catholic Ireland, I think the core message applies regardless of your religious affiliation or spirituality.
So I hope that you listeners of all faith traditions and backgrounds can have some takeaways from this episode. Small Things Like These follows Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant, husband and father of five girls, who sees his life stagnating in the daily grind of work and home responsibilities.
As he seeks greater meaning [00:01:00] during the Christmas season, he encounters a horrific treatment of young girls. and women, at the Irish Magdalen Laundries, and is confronted with a challenging ethical decision. For listeners who may not be familiar, the Magdalen Laundries were institutions run mostly by the Catholic Church, where an estimated 30, 000 young women were kept, and some might argue imprisoned, over the years for being considered quote unquote fallen women, until the institutions were finally closed in the 1990s, the Laundries were known for confining women and girls against their wills to engage in unpaid labor, and they were also known for physical, emotional, and psychological abuse. But Keegan's novella doesn't center on the lives of those who ran the laundries or the women and girls victimized by the suppressive system.
Rather, it focuses on the ordinary Bill Furlong and his own moral reckoning. We readers, accompany Bill and the small steps that he takes on the road to making a challenging, courageous, ethical decision. But don't worry, I'll try not to spoil the whole ending for you in [00:02:00] this episode. I have to say, it was impossible for me to read this book and not think of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol when reading small things like these.
Indeed, Keegan references the novel explicitly in the text. But unlike Scrooge, who is invited to publicly give away his wealth and be welcomed into a society with open arms, this Bill's small decision is between maintaining the status quo, maintaining those social relationships, and taking action knowing that the costs of his action will likely lead to exclusion, punishment, and considerable costs.
We often think of grand gestures when we consider moral courage in decision making. We may think of the well known examples of Heroes like Martin Luther King, Malala Yousafzai, or even Oscar Schindler. But Keegan's novel provides an example of how small actions and tiny moments of heroism can lead to significant change.
The decision of protagonist Bill Furlong isn't easy or grandiose, it's quiet and [00:03:00] deeply personal and risky. But it carries a weight because it reflects the choices that we all face in our daily lives. And that often may feel anything but large, significant, or historic. What struck me most about this story and why I think it resonates with the work of many of us in the social sector is how Bill's dilemma also mirrors the challenges faced by leaders like you who are working in nonprofits and public service organizations.
I reflected on this as I read one particular passage from the book, which goes like this. Keegan writes, As they carried along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking, Was there any point to being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, and through an entire life without once being brave enough to go against what was there and then call yourself a Christian and face yourself in the mirror?
This question cuts at the heart of what it means to do the work we do every day. [00:04:00] Many of you in nonprofits work for modest pay and do difficult work without much reward, but I suspect that you, like me, do this because we know that part of the reason we're all alive is that we do so to help one another.
Here, Bill Furlong is not just reflecting on his own actions, he's holding up a mirror to society and asking if we can truly live meaningful lives without taking those moments of stepping outside of our comfort zones and helping others. faced with decisions about how to allocate resources, advocate for change, or tell difficult truths to our teammates.
We're asked to sit down and listen to clients even when we're tired, or to work with a family even when it feels like they don't want to be there. We sometimes are asked to speak out and take action, even when it may come at personal, emotional, or financial costs. The work we do, whether it's providing services, evaluating programs, writing grants, or advocating for our communities, is part of this broader effort to help one another.
Sometimes it starts with [00:05:00] something small, asking a question, shining a light, taking one step, even when it feels uncertain or risky. This idea of stepping out reminds me of a recurring symbol throughout the novel. Footprints in the Snow. Appropriate for a holiday podcast, right? They're a beautiful image representing the small but significant marks that we leave behind when we act with courage.
Or put another way, it becomes easier for us to take actions of courage when we can follow in the footsteps of those who have done so before us. One of my favorite Christmas carols is the hymn Good King Wenceslas, which describes a page who follows his king's footsteps out into the cold to serve a poor neighbor.
The last verse goes something like this, In the master's steppe he trod, where in the snow lay dented. He was in the very sod which the saint had printed. Therefore men be sure, wealth or rank possessing, ye who now will bless the poor. Shall Yourselves Find Blessing. Like Furlong, the page in the hymn steps out of his comfort zone, [00:06:00] following the path of his good king who leads by example.
It's a reminder that even the smallest acts of bravery, whether helping one person or challenging one in justice, isn't just one action, but it creates a path for others to follow. As we head into the Keegan's novella. What is one small thing that you can do to make a big difference in your work, in your community, The community you serve, or in your personal life, what are some acts of courage that you have taken in your life?
Had these small actions of yours had ripple effects that go beyond your own action, perhaps even farther than you realized? And who are the people in your personal or professional life who have taken great acts of courage? And how might you follow in their footsteps?
I hope you enjoy these reflection questions, and I want to thank you for spending part of your holiday season listening to this podcast. I hope the episode gives you a moment of pause, [00:07:00] a moment to pause and reflect, not just in the challenges of the past year, but on the small meaningful actions that can shape the year ahead.
And put small things like these on your reading list for 2025. Trust me, you won't regret it. And it's short, which works out well for even the busiest of you listeners out there. And when you're not reading that, come check out our episodes at the Common Good Data podcast from 2024 at www. commongooddata.
com slash podcasts. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you all in the new year.
