Small Events Can Cause Big Changes (or not)

Flags fly at half-mast today in remembrance to Rosa Parks’ extraordinary life marked by the events she set into motion.
She was somehow placed on this planet (Intelligent Design, anyone?) to play a role in what must have seemed like a rather small event at the time, which obviously took more courage than many of us could muster, even with the backup of a few large friends. Quite an amazing story when you stop to think about how it all went down and how it impacted our country and culture.

All that being said (and not to diminish her contribution in the least!), it does seem a little unfair that other small, yet remotely similar, events happen each day which don’t end up changing much of anything.

Like the time, road weary from travelling all day, I walked into the women’s restroom inside a restaurant in the middle of Ohio, instead of the one I was "supposed to use", according to local laws and social norms.

Did THAT small act of civil disobedience make me a "diminutive figure who sparked a revolution"? No.
Did it beak down the restroom sexual bias and barriers throughout the world or even the country or at least in Ohio? No.
Are we men now free to use either restroom? No.
Did it change anything at all? Apparently not.

Sure, at the time I was completely oblivious to having entered the "wrong" restroom.
Sure, it was unoccupied at that particular moment.
Sure, I used it for its intended purpose, as well as to change into a fresh shirt prior to dining.
Sure, nobody noticed except for the lady talking on the pay phone outside of the bathroom door, who, by the way if she's reading this, didn’t have to give me one of "those looks".
But it was a radical move, none the less.

It’s hard to understand how history should chose to ignore it.