How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

Small decent acts are easy to dismiss as insignificant against the scale of what is wrong. The image works because a candle does not need to be large in order to be seen; it needs only to be surrounded by dark. Kindness takes its visibility from context, which means the worse the setting, the more a single ordinary good act registers.

You will not repair the general state of things this week. You can be the reliably decent presence in one room, which is not a consolation prize. It is more than most people manage, and it is noticed far more than you think.