Many of us know more about the rich and famous than we do about the people around us. We gossip about celebrities as though we were residents of the same small town. The trouble with celebrity culture is, we pay attention to this set of famous people, but they pay no attention to us. This can make us feel invisible. We come to feel like their lives matter a great deal, and ours don’t.

Some celebrities are talented, no doubt. But plenty of talented people live ordinary lives all around us, playing in local bands, painting in their basements, writing for little magazines. In these days of quarantine, most of this creativity remains invisible, but it continues. The main difference between our local artists and their famous colleagues is just fame.

If we list the people who make a difference in our daily lives, we won’t include many famous people. Trump has made a sad and frightening difference in all our lives, so he’d be on the list. So would our governors and mayors. But the people who really make this national nightmare bearable are our families, friends, and co-workers.

Other people who affect our daily lives aren’t even people we know. The grocery cashier who smiles warmly behind her plastic shield; the real human being we reach after twenty minutes on the phone with robots; the jerk who runs past us without a mask, coughing; people like these can make a tremendous difference in how we feel. If someone is kind to us, we will tend to be decent to the next person we meet. If someone is rude, we might very well take our anger out on whoever is unfortunate enough to cross our path next. In this way, a person’s smallest act can have consequences they will never be aware of.

This is how we make the world: one act at a time. If we drop our candy wrapper in the street, the world gets a little dirtier. If we teach a child to use waste barrels, the world gets a little cleaner. These acts might seem insignificant. But they add up; they matter.

American culture encourages greed, selfishness, arrogance, rudeness, and general lack of shame. Our current chief executive shows the result. Celebrity culture rewards the flashiest, not the best. The benefits of virtue are personal, like having good friends and a happy family. The people who treat others with kindness and respect often have no fame or fortune to make us notice them. Without their quiet work, though, civilization of any kind would be impossible.

So if you feel insignificant, you are wrong. What you say and do affects everyone around you, whether you know them or not, and what they say and do affects you, whether or not you’re aware of it. You are part of the fabric of this world as long as you live. You make it stronger and more beautiful, or weaker and meaner. That is your choice. Choose wisely. It matters.