put-downs

 

the cost of the "zing"

each of us struggles to move forward,

we carry heavy weights within us,

and we doubt ourselves,

we doubt that we are worth enough

that our strength is enough,

we need the other, someone outside to validate us,

the other to see us, 

to know us,

to love us,

to celebrate us,

we easily slip into impulse:

kidding around, the quick put-down of the other,

making us feel higher by pushing the other lower,

a zero-sum game in which our plus needs their minus to work,

instead the "zing" only adds a minus to a minus,

like sugar it is a temporary high which doesn't last,

and, afterwards, we are not then as healthy as we should be,

and we are even less validated.

by Henry H. Walker

February 7, ‘24