I’ve No More F***s To Give! – Thomas Benjamin

Albert Einstein once famously said,

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”

…

My girlfriend out of nowhere texts, “What is respect to you?”

Now, at that time, I reckon asking myself — Wow! I’ve never really asked this question ever. What a marvelous inquiry though (a subtle voice speaks from somewhere inside)?

Sadly, I don’t remember anything about my reply to her that evening because she deleted all our mostly nonsensical messages.

Hmm…

But, I also know that it is neither new nor a news to somebody as old as a full grown tree like myself to appreciate the gravity and essence of this beautiful question.

Because, in the great scheme of things such as humanity, respect as much as love has forever been deeply etched and beautifully tethered across all forms of human race, ethnicity, culture, religion et cetera, however, also terribly fucked, undervalued, poorly handled, artificially contrived, politically bent and conflated and mishandled for the most part.

So, what precisely is respect to me!

Googling ‘What is respect‘ results ‘About 1,590,000,000 results (0.57 seconds)’; meaning, enough has already been said on this one dear sentiment. And, it would be foolish of me to add more of the same bricks. So, perhaps distilling down them all in few easy-to-chew sentences will be a nice thing to do, I suppose:

Respect to me is that genuine feeling of,

 

Respect is not loyalty.

Respect is as simple as, and as profound as  feeling — “I couldn’t be more grateful that you happened to me in this life“.

And, agreeably so, respect rightfully isn’t given but earned.”

 

Lastly, to recapitulate and add a bit flare, and anatomically speaking as well, RESPECT is caring enough! 

Rests, no fucks to give, none to take!

p.s Enjoy this bonus track here.