Stand in My Way

The line in the sand isn't real. At least, not in the materially tangible sense. However, every person who's ever lived has felt such line, as hot and metallic as the blood pulsing in their veins.

Stand in My Way

You know the line in the sand -

it's very real, isn't it - ?

*

Maybe, like The Big Sick, it respects the sacrifices of paved paths by adhering to dictates. Or, like Mirai, it's the color of a pair of pants in a moment in time.

Maybe, like The Fabelmans, it dismisses the suffering of others under a veneer of casual ignorance. Or, like Marry Me, it's pretending.

*

There's a lazy embrace of lines in the sand like choosing heroism a la Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or ruthlessness a la Taken, that defines the line in the sand as if there's -

A pride. In a line. In the sand.

*

But in reality, the line is, well -

a story we tell ourselves about where we stand.

*

According to some, a conversation about lines in the sand can't ignore the role of silos and anonymity. Which is to say, some lines in the sand aren't lines, so much as -

Packs. Packs that value unreserved loyalty, above rationality. Or organized attacks, above compromise. Or the like.

Such that the merit of any such conversation, hinges on addressing silos and anonymity.

*

But in reality, pack behavior is, well -

a story we tell ourselves about who we stand by.

*

According to some, lines in the sand are virtue signals, favored by the indoctrinated. To be mocked as self-promoting piss and vinegar and -

Corrupt. Because assailing what's indecent is what's decent. If not denouncing what's false as weak and predatory and so much worse.

*

But in reality, why we react, is -

a story we tell ourselves about why we stand.

*

Maybe, the line in the sand isn't -

A line. In the sand.

Because a duck-walking, duck-talking, duck-acting not-duck -

isn't a duck.

Maybe, where we stand and who we stand by and why, is-

A story. We tell ourselves. To stand in the way. Of believing differently. Or expressing differently. Or aspiring differently.

Because standing in the way not being real -

is every person who's ever died on a hill for nothing but a line.

More

In the end, the stories we tell ourselves, are our reality. As narrators, we proclaim such stories, our 'truth'. The bedrock and spine of who we are.

As if

the blood in our veins - and

the line in the sand - and

our stand - and

the hill we die on - are not

fixed in place by our invention and imagination.

*

In the end, we can author a courageous reality that -

Believes differently. Expresses differently. Aspires differently. 

Or we can tell ourselves myths about our powerlessness to rewrite the stories we tell ourselves. 

M

*

Note

To the extent that the stories we tell ourselves inform our lines in the sand and our lines in the sand inform the stories we tell, the following are... movies: The Big Sick (2017), Mirai (2018), The Fabelmans (2022), Marry Me (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), and Taken (2008).

M