I was requested to write these words of some dear friends. Friends I just can’t say no to. So in a way the following is the opposite of what I am about to say, this is about Forced Speech.
Forced Speech is when a number of circumstances take shape in one form or another to force you to say something you may not want to say.
But you say it anyway.
You start addressing something that is so wrong, that you have no choice but to stand up and talk about it, even though you don’t want to.
But you say it anyway.
You know these things you say may get you into a whole lot of trouble. Trouble you would prefer to stay out of.
But you say it anyway.
The fact is in life, we are forced to do things we don’t want to do, but do them despite our negative feelings. Because the NOT doing these things is so much worse. Because any rational person knows that watching something so terrible and wrong and not doing anything about is just as bad as doing the monstrosity itself. And though you are not contributing to this monstrosity, you do become an integral part of its existence. One of the many cogs that make the mechanics of this monster move on.
We look onto this mechanical monster and say to ourselves “That is terrible. But if I leave it alone it won’t harm me.” And we move on with our lives. Keeping a faint memory of something that monster did, and how terrible it was. And then we take comfort that it didn’t hurt us. “We did the right thing.” Then one day we find somebody we love being gnawed and crushed by this monster’s teeth and cogs. And that is when we realize that we have become one of the cogs that keeps this machine alive. We are now one of the cogs that are crushing our loved ones.
Step back and take a look at that picture. Tell me that is a picture you would want to see. Tell me that stepping up to that monster is something you actually look forward to. You don’t.
But you will summon up the courage to walk up to that monster, and think up what you have to say. And though you know the monster may very well crush you.
But you say it anyway.
People usually ask me what my online name means, “what does Fangpyre mean? And I usually shy away from explaining what it means thinking people may not understand it to its full extent. But today, I’ll say it anyway.
But before I go into that, I will explain how I came to see this name as something important.
It was an Eid and I was watching a butcher get ready to slaughter the sheep. And the sheep were cornered off calmly while he gets his things ready. But all of a sudden a bunch of the sheep were able to break free and started running down the street. So the butcher franticly ran after them, and then took the biggest sheep by the horns and dragged it towards where he had them cornered off. And this sheep was trying to pull away from the butcher, but wasn’t able to. It simply was no match for him. This by itself is an image that isn’t so strange. But what came next was what struck me. The rest of the sheep that had escaped were still following the biggest sheep, only now it was being dragged against it wishes to its dooms. And though this sheep didn’t want to follow the butcher, the rest were content in doing that.
And that is where the moniker Fangpyre came to be.
It means “Don’t be a sheep. Don’t lay your fangs to the pyre”.
Because the moment you give in and you no longer stand up for the things you believe in, is the moment you really die.
So you summon up the courage to say what you feel is right. And you can feel this crushing fear inside your gut about what will happen when you start talking.
But you say it anyway.