KIRKLAND, like life, is made up of little things. And like Kirkland, the little particulars of life matter in a very big way.
William Deresiewicz emphasizes in his new book A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter the importance of life’s “particulars.” “Many little particulars” make up the life of Emma Woodhouse, the title character in Jane Austen’s Emma. Emma is not absorbed by life’s noisy events, but instead, as seen by Deresiewicz, she seizes trivial things like “what your nephew said, what your friend heard, and what your neighbor did.” And it is precisely the act of paying attention and indulging in these “minute particulars” that make Emma’s life so lively, worthwhile, and entertaining to read about.
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Similarly, what makes Kirkland so lively, and what makes living in Kirkland so worthwhile and entertaining, is its many little, minute particulars. Kirkland’s downtown is not overtaken by any one loud, noisy presence. Rather, it is a conglomerate of many little places: , Studio Be Yoga, , , . Its days, weeks, and months are filled with many little events: Summer Concert Series, Wednesday and Friday Night Markets, Art Walk, a walk along the lake front, Brix and Trellis happy hours, KPC Performances.
Any one of these individual places, or any one of these single events, may not alone put Kirkland on the map. But put them all together in one place and something very big happens: the small particulars create a larger community that sustains each one of us. These particulars are the texture and the fabric of the place we call home, each one of which contributes to the flavor of our unique existence.
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As Jane Austen might write if she lived on the shores of Lake Washington, Kirkland’s “Little affairs, arrangements, perplexities, and pleasures” constitute “all those little matters on which the daily happiness of private life depends.”
In particular, Kirkland’s particulars matter.
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Trent Latta is an attorney and a member of Kirkland's Cultural Council. He may be reached at TrentLatta@gmail.com.