occam’s razor

Little Salt, his abuelo and his mami were migrant workers from El Salvador. 

A kind priest heard their story and led them to an underground railroad that took them to a church in Arizona that gave them sanctuary. 

They began a migration across the country, and dropped their blood, sweat and tears onto the ground all the way to South Carolina.

They were many thousands of miles from where they began, from home. 

They began picking tomatoes and peaches near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. 

Little Salt didn't know where they would go next, only that they would go. 

He used to despair about the going until he learned that blue whales migrate, too. 

They go many thousands of miles, season after season, year after year, like him. 

This made his heart hopeful.

Little Salt knew that if a blue whale's brain was a motor, it would be a Formula 1 race car engine. 

If a human being's brain was a motor, it would be a VW Beetle engine. 

His brain was like the blue whale's brain. 

He was a living Occam's Razor. 

It was the little Franciscan monk William of Occam who lived in the Middle Ages and who said, "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.”

Little Salt’s mind always tended toward those simple, best solutions.

When he looked at a problem, any problem, it was as if it began to glow with the light of a halo.

The answer began to show itself to him in that light.

He understood people in this way, too. 

When he looked at a person, any person, it was as if the person began to glow with the light of a halo.  

The essence of that person began to show itself to him in that light.

He found beauty in the plain, genius in the simple, wonder in the ordinary and courage in the human.

"Whales are the most intelligent creatures in the world," said Little Salt’s abuelo. 

“And you are like them.”

This made his heart hopeful, too.