What are the motifs in Whirligig by Paul Fleischman?

The overarching idea of Whirligig is the one that gives its name to the title. Miss Gill, the court mediator, begins the restitution meeting by telling the participants that we never know all the consequences of our acts because they reach into places we cannot see, and into the future, where no one can see. The author can, however, see the future, and before Brent's car has bounced off the median, one of his whirligigs in Maine, hundreds of miles and years away, has touched the lives of two girls. Brent feels this interconnectivity as his summer goes on.