You Can Too

I can sweet talk, oh yes I can, but I choose to speak forthrightly. To declare, to proclaim. Speak now; find evidence later. But DO find the evidence. Don’t skip the hard stuff.

I’m known for outbursts, oh yes I am, but I choose to use my passion something like a fire tempers metal. Temper words. Anneal my words in the heat of experience. Smooth out the roughness.

I can be crazy, oh yes I can, but I deny others the chance to call me loose cannon. Crackpot. Be first to call myself out. Keep my options open.

I can lay on the schmooze, oh yes I can, but I choose to find traits in others worthy of my praise. A smile. An act of kindness. Acceptance of a responsibility. I choose to celebrate the precise. The smallest feature, the tiniest act.

I can storm, oh yes I can, but I choose to find the sunshine peering from behind the cloud. Go back to bed; start the day over. Again and again. Be the gentle rain that nourishes rather than the torrent sweeping the world away in its path.

I can wheedle, oh yes I can but I choose to drive a hard bargain. To pitch my position. Speak of what might be. Paint a picture of injustice and find solutions. Try my darnedest to get you on my side. Then end as friends.

How to become friends? Get to know each other. Isn’t that the way? Easy to dislike what you don’t know. So much more difficult to put down your friend than the one you’ve never spoken to. The person you have so much in common with.

How to talk to strangers? Break down the walls. No battering ram, no bullets through plate glass. Stone throwing is so Middle Ages. But perhaps a hammer and chisel picking at a small depression in the mortar. Expanding it bit by bit until it is the size of a peephole. Oh! Now I see you! Soon I can place my ear against the hole and you your mouth. Soon we can crawl through and stand beside each other. Progress is painful but necessary.

I can speak harsh words, oh yes I can. But I can heal too. With a touch. With a word. With a smile.

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