What It’s All About

You see (I seem to start that way a lot lately, don’t I?) what 
it’s really about is the choices we make, even the littlest 
ones we CAN make, where we really do have several options, 

whether we put on the striped, ugly tie we were handed and 
decide to bind ourselves up with a tight knot, or strip in favor 
of a tie-dye t-shirt and peace sign. Or perhaps we do them both: 

don the semblance of clashing colors, but wear the virile symbol 
of resistance underneath, keeping it close to our hearts, leaving
our dress clothes buttons undone so everyone can see where it is

we really stand. And while some people might believe that using 
the “and” instead of the “or” is somehow a giving up, a giving in,
I do not believe there is anything wrong with doing the rightest 

of things when it comes down to dealing with people’s livelihoods, 
that it is perfectly acceptable and possible to live with high ethics 
and values, integrity and happiness, dump buckets of each into 

the stainless steel vat of capitalism, healthy doses of brewer’s yeast
that rise above the murk of the top layer and, rather than fermenting 
into something numbing, something turned toxic, save a life instead. 

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, copyright April 8, 2024, all rights reserved