GrandRising | Proximity & Proxy

🖋

Question.

Have you ever noticed...

How quickly...

Some people...

Begin speaking...

For someone else?

Bruh...

It happens...

More often...

Than people realize.

Someone...

Stands nearby.

Learns a little.

Sees a little.

Hears...

Fragments.

And before long...

They quietly conclude...

They've somehow...

Become...

Qualified.

Interesting.

Proximity...

Can produce familiarity.

But...

It does not...

Produce authority.

Those...

Do not equate.

Being...

Close to someone...

Doesn't mean...

You understand them.

Knowing...

About someone...

Doesn't mean...

You know them.

Witnessing...

Part of a story...

Doesn't make you...

Its author.

Question.

At what point...

Did observation...

Become...

Representation?

...

Yikes.

There is another word...

For representing...

Another.

Proxy.

Notice...

The distinction.

Proximity...

Describes...

Where you are.

Proxy...

Describes...

Who you've been entrusted...

To speak for.

One...

Measures distance.

The other...

Requires permission.

Those...

Do not equate.

Yet...

Some people...

Quietly replace...

Permission...

With assumption.

"I've been around long enough."

"I know how they think."

"I can explain..."

"What they really meant."

Bruh...

No.

Question.

Who...

Appointed you?

Silence.

Authority...

Cannot be self-issued...

On behalf...

Of another.

Representation...

Without permission...

Isn't stewardship.

It is presumption.

And presumption...

Has a peculiar habit.

It convinces itself...

That speaking...

For another...

Is somehow...

An act...

Of righteousness.

Interesting.

Once someone believes...

They've become...

The proxy...

They often begin...

Casting stones...

As though...

They were handed...

The authority...

To judge...

On another's behalf.

Question.

Whose burden...

Are you carrying?

...

Or...

Whose burden...

Have you quietly...

Invented?

There is...

A difference...

Between...

Standing near...

Someone...

And standing...

In their place.

One...

Requires nothing...

But proximity.

The other...

Requires...

Recognition.

Consent.

Permission.

Those...

Do not equate.

Perhaps...

The most respectful posture...

Isn't...

To speak...

For someone.

Perhaps...

It is...

To allow them...

To remain...

The author...

Of their own voice.

GrandRising. 🍵