Big Picture Versus Up Close

While watching an old episode of NCIS last night, the ever insightful protagonist, LeRoy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) made the comment to NCIS Special Agent Eleanor Bishop (Emily Wickersham) that she should, “Forget the big picture, look at everything up close.” This is an interesting thought and a takeoff of the famous quote from Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Lullaby (2002), that says, “The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything up close.” This really got me to thinking that this advice could be taken two different two different ways with both ways of looking at it being right.

In the context of the television show, Gibbs was advising Bishop to pay attention to the here and now and not worry so much about the big picture. In other words, be where our feet are. Whereas, in the case of Palahniuk’s comment, it was meant that if we spend all our time looking too closely, we will forget the big picture.

This is all quite the conundrum for me to think about. Palahniuk’s work highlighted how focusing on small, immediate details can distract us from broader concerns or truths. In the context of his writing, it often serves as a commentary on modern society’s tendency to obsess over trivialities, thereby losing sight of more significant issues or realities. Palahniuk frequently explored themes of perception, control, and societal obsession, using this idea to emphasize how individual preoccupations can obscure larger, more meaningful perspectives.

I believe this is one of those times where we have to hold both ways of thinking as right and balance them according to context. There are times where we need to stay focused on the big picture and others when we need to be in the moment and looking at everything close up.

Byron's Babbles