When No Becomes Yes

The matrix doesn’t sleep.

It’s easy to get sucked in. The non-stop propaganda of TV screens; social media endlessly streaming via laptops and phones or… however else you find yourself sucked in. (And if you sleep with your smart phone in your room, you get programmed all night long, know it or not. The broadcast is continuous.)

I don’t claim to understand the matrix but can feel both its presence, it’s grip and it’s breaking up and falling apart.

We’ve all of us - who are not so completely stuck in it - have been dealing in real time with what this means. We have our shared experiences with that - and we have our individual and unique experiences too. We’re not in the same place, and how could we be? Individuals are individual.

Daily life goes on. Work goes on, bills continue, along with relationships and worries and all the rest of life. In this backdrop of “normal” human doings we are watching a civilization-level unwinding.

Admittedly, sometimes I wish I didn’t see it.

The shocker for so many of us is that a big percentage of our friends, family and neighbors don’t seem to notice. Living side-by-side with the clueless is weird.

I got tools, and even with them, I have days that can feel hollow and purposeless. The usual ground beneath my feet has shifted or disappeared and it’s not always clear where the new ground will emerge from. I know enough to know that if I just keep going, one foot in front of the other - do this, then that - another day will pass and I’m still here.

There are intense pressure days, and then a release day happens. There are things I can do, to invite those days; to soften the edges. Just feeling into having a body helps. Hanging out with trees helps. In the matrix we lose track of our bodies; they leave our awareness, we lose track of time, and truly, we lose track of ourselves.

I remind myself often: Don’t spend too much time checking it all out, balance is needed.

What can we do in such times? That feels meaningful, that has a sense of agency? Of course, we will answer that question, in a case by case, person by person basis. We are, none of us, here by accident. So, you will have your own answers. I’ll have mine - but here’s an idea. Not new, or original.

Simple, powerful and really, maybe all enough of us need to do. Surely worth repeating.

We say No.

No, I don’t believe that.

No, I’m not doing that.

No, I won’t agree to that, go along with that, comply with that.

No.

No, I won’t keep my mouth shut; I won’t pretend I don’t see what I see.

No, I won’t apologize for thinking differently.

No.

No feels good. Feels clear. Feels like there is a person here, who, each time she says No, is a bit more present, a bit more real. No takes up room. No is a stance.

No requires you claim a space in this place. No requires a person with not just agency but opinion and presence.

No matters.

No breaks up the matrix.

No disrupts conformity and zombi-ism. No pisses people off, because it makes them question their thoughtless ongoing Yes.

No, says I’m here. No is not just a claim, but a reclaim and a reframing of reality.

So, No.

In fact, Fuck, No. Digital identities and 15 minutes cities? That would be a No.

Inept talking heads, "leaders” and “experts” telling me what to think, “Oh, thank you, but, No.”

(What a clown.)

In all the ways that No is a rejection of what’s happening, it’s also, as importantly, a deep Yes to ourselves. A Yes to our very existence. A Yes to the individual as a being that matters.

No is a Yes to the future of humanity.

No is really a Yes to life.

It’s an affirming statement that will - given enough of us do it - expedite this unraveling in order to make room for a better world.

So, Yes. I will activate my No and claim myself in this world.

Thanks for reading.

If you would like to support my work, please consider a paid subscription of buying me a kofi.

https://ko-fi.com/kathleen87247

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/devanneyka1