A friend dropped this sticker from Good Magazine on my desk one day saying it was ’”for me” like she thought I would enjoy it the most out of anyone else she could have given it to.

The message: ”_______________ like you give a damn.” is a direct sign to me. I thought for a minute what I could put inside that blank. I can’t even remember what I’d originally thought was clever and it was all forgotten once I thought of the word, ‘Act.’

The word is simple and its meaning is complex. I realize that its usage is in danger of being a trite considering it was probably the first thought of many people who received the stickers. However, at the risk of being unoriginal (which is the trigger of my deepest darkest anxiety) I felt that the statement, or rather, the command, “Act like you give a damn.” was more appropriate.

To be honest most of the time I’m so stoic that I forget that emotion exists and lots of times moments of affection come and go without a single reaction from me—save the familiar stone faced, calmly toned version of me that quickly erects walls of whatever I can find (furniture, trash bags, cheese) to save me from feeling. It is no secret that ‘feeling’ coincides with community, which is that lofty philosophy that many hope to participate in. I tepidly test the shores of togetherness and am most often blessed to be a part of a group of people who I later find are usually struggling with the same hopes and burdens as me.

It is interesting that the very thing that keeps us away from each other is the one thing that can solder us more surely to one another. Instead of being alone in the dark, cold cave of isolation. I could be surrounded with the warmth and illuminance (I’m thinking of freshly baked bread all warm out of the oven). Maybe I’m the bread in the oven and the oven represents loved ones and I represent a yeasty, doughy thing that, if all goes well, rises to the occassion and provides joy to others.

Anyway, a long few paragraphs to write about something as mundane as the word, ‘act.’ The only posers are the ones not feeling a damned thing. So, onward I travel and soon I hope that reflection produces action and then when I’m older I will realize the purpose that was built into me from the beginning.