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How small consistent actions can have a resounding affect

Written By: Marjorie Spiller Neagle (circa 1960)

In a gun factory in the  United States, an unusual experiment was conducted. A bottle cork, weighing less than four grams, was suspended by an almost invisible silk thread alongside a heavy steel bar, itself hung vertically from a beam by a slender metal chain.

The cork, set in motion, began to swing gently against the steel bar. For a long time, nothing was seen but its rhythmic, noiseless swaying back and forth, back and forth, while the steel bar remained motionless.

More minutes went by . . . two, five, ten, a half hour. Then, suddenly, under the relentless barrage, and so imperceptibly as to seem almost an illusion, the steel bar was seen to tremble. A few moments later it shuddered as if seized with a nervous tremor, hung quiet again, then shuddered again.

There was no deviation in the motion of the cork. Steadily, without haste, it continued its noiseless assault. And now the movements of the great steel bar became less tremulous as it settled into an orderly pattern of motion, gradually picking up the rhythm of the swinging cork.

In another half hour, the cork, its work finished, was cut down, and the heavy bar was swinging back and forth as steady and rhythmically as a pendulum.

I pondered a comparison between the heavy steel bar and any prejudiced person or group. For when I encounter such seemingly immovable people, I feel powerless to have any impact on them. “How can I, singlehanded, make even the slightest difference in such hide-bound opinions?” I ask myself and do nothing.

But if an almost weightless cork can, by its gentle persistent impact, set a heavy bar of steel in motion, why cannot I, with nothing more than a friendly “good morning” day after day, induce that standoffish neighbor of mine to become a friend? Why can’t my quiet yet constant reiteration of a truth make an impression on even the most deeply rooted prejudice.

And, in a broader sense, cannot I, by continually speaking against an evil or a lack in my community, eventually influence other people so that the minority of one will become a majority large enough to bring about change?

If a little cork can do it, so can I!