Then he sat up proudly as he took a sip his drink.
I looked into the face of what seemed a seven year old...then it slowly morphed back into the familiar face of a 46 year old man.
At that moment I knew. I'd had enough!
As I look around, it seems I am not the only one who has had enough.
We have a new president, elected by those who felt they'd had enough of the Republican party.
We've watched as CEOs took more than enough for their bonuses and we don't have enough to pay our mortgages.
We have 12 step programs for people who have had more than enough food, alcohol, gambling, etc.
We've all had enough of Paris and Brittany.
When someone says "enough is enough" it means it is time to stop.
And "when" means "now"!
There comes a point in everyone's life when they reach "enough."
Does it mean that at that point we stop doing something?
What if we can't stop someone from hitting us? What if we can't stop someone from ignoring us? What if we can't stop the stock market from plunging? What if we can't stop a country from going to war?
Since no one can control the actions of another, perhaps "enough is enough" becomes the door to walk through to new opportunity. The start of pushing ourselves in a new direction.
Webster defines enough as "occurring in such quantity, quality, or scope as to fully meet demands, needs, or expectations. Sufficient."
When are our circumstances sufficient?
When is enough, enough?
Maybe it's when we are ready... to move in a better direction.
To walk away from a hurtful person. To seek comfort when abandoned. To reinvest our savings. To elect leadership that will represent our desires. To find a date that will simply say...
That's enough. Thank you.
Posts
A much kinder and gentler way of putting it, yet a similar sentiment to that expressed in the movie "Network" 33 years ago. And the same things are going on that where happening then:
ReplyDelete"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
Like I said yours is a kinder and gentler response showing that a gentle answer turns away wrath. And that is truly enough, thank you.