Speak NO as a transmission
Remember when you were very young, and a parent or guardian said NO? NO, you cannot have that. NO, you cannot do that. NO, this is not how our family behaves.
And the NO came from them as a transmission. It meant NO. NO wriggle room. NO crack in the door of possibility.
NO.
A complete sentence.
Remember when your parent or guardian said no, but it lacked commitment? No longer a transmission, a wish.
Remember how you knew the difference between the two types of no.
NO, and no.
With the first NO, you might have tested it a little, just to be sure. Because children are good at pushing boundaries. Very quickly, you affirmed that it was a NO.
With the second no, you tested it until its back was broken, and it became a yes.
Very young children know the difference between a NO and a no.
We do not forget this skill of discernment.
Fast forward to being an adult.
When we say no, do we mean NO or no?
Are we watching while our children or those we are responsible for, or the people we employ, run rings around us under a soft uncommitted no?
Do we observe a world where people get away with almost everything? Just today, a woman touted as being a possible Press Secretary for a possible Trump second term said publicly that people like Mehdi Hasan, an incredible Muslim journalist, need to be purged from this country (USA), or else we are going to have another 9/11 on steroids. The hate speech that has now been accepted as normal is a threat to the health of everyone. Corruption at the highest level goes by, the fight too hard in the sea of too hard fights. Corrupted power wins through our exhaustion.
Little atrocities become big. Slowly, slowly, then quickly. This is the banality of evil, as explored by Hannah Arendt. Evil always happens as we stand by and watch it take root.
It starts when we utter no, and do not back it with our being. NO!
We do this as parents, as lovers, as friends, as citizens, as employees and employers.
We must Dare to Care enough to speak NO as a transmission.
If you think your circumstances at the office or in the family are trite on the scale of no’s, think again.
Photo Taken February 4th 2024
