Coding & Leaf By Niggle - Part 1

There have been many things I have wanted to write about over the past few months, this is one of them. Leaf By Niggle is a short story by J.R.R Tolkien. Niggle is a man who loves beauty but can never seem to achieve it himself. This article will primarily be a summary of the short story and the next few parts will be my reflection on how this story has helped me in my coding journey thus far.

As I have been learning to code one thought, that seems to be a thought amongst aspiring Software Developers, is the desire to create awesome things. This is not a bad desire. Neither was Niggle’s. What is interesting about Niggle’s story is that he never gets there. He never achieves what he wanted. He had this grand vision of a beautiful landscape, but he could never paint the leaf the way he wanted it.

Niggle knew that death would find him one day and it the thought of death always seemed to be on his mind because as soon as death came his dreams of having the perfect painting would be gone.

And the story goes on. Niggle is frustrated by people, but cannot stop helping them and serving them. Saddest of all, to us anyways, death comes and Niggle leaves this life not having accomplished what he wished.

However, the story doesn’t end there for Niggle. The last third of the book is devoted to Niggle’s life in the next life. Niggle arrives there to see the tree he always wanted to paint. The perfect leaf. ‘The gift’ he calls it. He then is able to work as hard as he possibly can and as hard as he always wanted to in heaven because there things are as they were meant to be. Life is cultivated. Beauty is molded. Creativity thrives. Work is fulfilling, not burdensome. Everything is experienced in its fullness and in its rightness.

This perspective on work can change our perspective here as well. Work becomes the method by which cultures and people can flourish. We serve others and work for the flourishing of our communities and societies. This was a dramatically refreshing outlook on work for me and I look forward to telling you about it in the next article.