{"id":314,"date":"2026-01-27T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/?p=314"},"modified":"2026-01-27T11:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:57:09","slug":"yertle-the-turtle-the-cost-of-standing-on-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"Yertle the Turtle & the Cost of Standing on One Another"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A quick note before we begin<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
This post touches on current events\u2014not to argue, persuade, or inflame, but to reflect. I know writing this may cost me readers. But silence has started to feel like compliance, and inaction is still a choice. This is a thinking piece, written with care, kindness, and the belief that humanity should come before ideology. If you\u2019re open to that, I\u2019m glad you\u2019re here.<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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This post wasn\u2019t planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It started the way a lot of things do lately\u2014with me thinking I was done for the day. I had just finished writing, closed my laptop, and moved into our pre-nap routine. Books everywhere. A toddler negotiating like a tiny attorney. And a very specific request for this<\/em> book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t remember reading Yertle the Turtle<\/strong> as a kid. Maybe that\u2019s why it landed differently. Or maybe it\u2019s because when you read something slowly, out loud, to a child who stops you to ask questions, you don\u2019t get to skip the uncomfortable parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yertle wants to be higher. To see more. To rule more. So he tells the other turtles to stack themselves underneath him. No checking in. No concern for how uncomfortable or unsafe it gets. Just a steady climb upward because he<\/em> wants a better view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And everyone goes along with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until one small turtle, Mack, burp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s it. No yelling. No dramatic speech. Just a pause. And the whole thing comes crashing down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should probably say this clearly: I\u2019m not a political person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t enjoy debates. I don\u2019t like yelling. I don\u2019t ask people I love who they voted for. For most of my life, I didn\u2019t even know what party my parents or siblings aligned with. What I did<\/em> know was that they believed in being a good person. That mattered more to me than any label ever could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not being political doesn\u2019t mean being disconnected. And it doesn\u2019t mean pretending things don\u2019t register on a human level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lately, the world has felt heavier. Louder. Sharper. And I think part of why people keep saying they want to \u201clive like it\u2019s 2016\u201d isn\u2019t because life was perfect then\u2014but because it felt less relentless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of us are still doing the same things. Going to work. Raising kids. Worrying about money. Managing relationships and stress and health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s changed is how constant<\/em> everything feels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news doesn\u2019t pause. Social media doesn\u2019t rest. And even when you\u2019re just trying to stay informed\u2014to not look away\u2014you end up pulling more and more grief into your own pocket because the algorithm keeps handing it back to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel that tension constantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know it matters to share what\u2019s happening. To not ignore it. To witness. And at the same time, I know how easy it is to drown in it if I\u2019m not careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been stories I can\u2019t stop thinking about. Renee Good<\/strong>. Alex Pretti<\/strong>. Two human beings whose names became headlines, but who were people long before that\u2014someone\u2019s family, someone\u2019s neighbor, someone who mattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t bring them up to push sadness onto anyone. I bring them up because naming people matters. Because when we stop using names, it gets easier to stack bodies instead of seeing humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t agree with Charlie Kirk<\/strong>. I don\u2019t agree with his speeches, his words, or his ideas. But I do believe he is a person. And that distinction matters more than we think, because the moment we stop seeing each other as human, everything becomes easier to justify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I keep noticing\u2014just from where I\u2019m standing\u2014is how comfortable we\u2019ve become poking and prodding at one another. How quickly cruelty gets dressed up as conviction. How easily mockery passes for strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I don\u2019t think that\u2019s happening in a vacuum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When dismissiveness is modeled as power, it spreads. When empathy is framed as weakness, people learn to harden. And before long, we\u2019re standing on each other without even realizing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ones absorbing all of this most closely?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our kids. Not just ours. ALL OF THE CHILDREN!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t choose the world they\u2019re born into. They don\u2019t choose the language we normalize or the anger we excuse. They\u2019re just watching\u2014and learning and being thrust directly into it. My sister was right and gave the best analogy. They are getting adult size portions on child size plates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to live angry. I don\u2019t want this space to become another place people come to feel weighed down. I want honesty and<\/em> breathing room. I want gentleness that doesn\u2019t require ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why Yertle sticks with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn\u2019t fall because someone attacked him.
He fell because someone finally spoke\u2014quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe that\u2019s where I am too. Not yelling. Not arguing. Not trying to climb higher by standing on someone else. Just clearing my throat and saying: this doesn\u2019t feel right.<\/em> Maybe gentleness doesn\u2019t mean staying quiet. Maybe it means clearing our throats\u2014and speaking before silence becomes permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t have to agree on everything to remember each other\u2019s humanity.
We don\u2019t have to carry every story to care.
And we don\u2019t have to drown to prove we\u2019re paying attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still me. Still here. Still trying to live gently in a loud world.
Still choosing softness\u2014especially for the kids watching us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A quick note before we begin This post touches on current events\u2014not to argue, persuade, or inflame, but to reflect. I know writing this may cost me readers. But silence has started to feel like compliance, and inaction is still a choice. This is a thinking piece, written with care, kindness, and the belief that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-lately"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillmeinhere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}