Use the micro to access the macro

(of course, the reverse works, too)

Today, find a tiny object in your immediate environment— a pen, a pin, a tissue, a button, a stamp, whatever. Write about the object until you find a way to connect it to your own story, or to connect it to a big narrative in the world at the moment.

That might mean doing research and finding out the history of the object or who invented it and writing about why that matters right now, or maybe it’s about how that particular object entered your life and what it means to you. Maybe that shakes out to be a story about realizing the keys on your keyboard were made in a place currently facing a geopolitical crisis. Maybe that ends up being a piece about how you’ve moved your bedroom doorknob from house to house for twenty years because it reminds you of your grandmother. The what is up to you. Let’s write.