This was originally posted a while ago but it seems important in the light of things to move it up.
I broke a glass on the weekend. Nothing major, just a bog standard, cheap Ikea glass. Made in Italy for what it's worth. It was on the edge of the bench, stupid place to put it, my own fault. I knocked it, wasn't quick enough to catch it so it broke, smashed, spread shiny little shards on my kitchen floor. A whole suddenly in pieces. It was swept up, put in the bin but still I missed pieces, I stepped on two, TG on one, niblet on none thankfully. Thought nothing of it.
Until now.
I'm finding that glass is a metaphor for things that have happened in the last few weeks. A whole, something apparently cohesive, shattered into pieces by an act brought on by a combination of factors, much like my smashed glass. It broke because I knocked it but a combination of factors led to it being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For a while it seemed swept up and kinda alright but actions have consequences and now it's like ripples in a pond spreading out from the impact of a stone, the slow motion fracture of my glass as it hit the floor the concussion of the blow moving through the solid structure shattering it.
Well shit happens I suppose but I hate it, I hate conflict, I said to someone 'I don't do black and white', I see the sides, the stories, I can't define where it is I sit because that is not me. Life is all shades of grey inbetween to me. No one will ever agree completely, that's not human nature. What defines us is how we deal with those disagreements. How we take the opinion and actions of others. Do we take them to heart straight away, think them over or just go with the flow? Do we just act and think later, consider what we're going to do and then do it or consider it and decide that maybe, no that's not the thing to do at this moment in time.
Words can be powerful, they can change people, lives, history. And yet they're used so thoughtlessly without any thought for what the future may bring because of the way those words have been used. Simple little things like 'I love you' 'I hate you' they make and break people. Then there's the more insidious use of words, phrases skipping around their true meaning or just outright saying what you mean.
Words can mean absolutely nothing but they can mean so much too.
Think on that. Own what you say but say what you own with care. Because behind the screen there is not only the machines there are people, people with hearts, minds, feelings. People who sometimes wonder what the damn point of it all is. You may not care who you piss off or upset but the people you piss off and upset do. Actions and words are the stone in the pond, they spread, have a ripple effect, they hurt.
No (wo)man is an island, entire of itself; every (wo)man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
John Donne
So be it, I have said my peace, interpret it as you will. I condone nothing and condemn no one I only write from my heart in the hope it will make you think about what you say and how you say it.
There but for the grace of god go I.
