14.
Have you ever been in a relationship where the pressure builds incrementally until you want to tear it apart, just to see what remaining fragments are important to you?
Have you ever picked a groundless fight, or maintained your rightness when you knew you were wrong, or pushed and pushed to see how far you can go before the other person pushes back?
Some children do this to their parents. Some people do this to their lovers. Some workers do this to their colleagues.
There is tension in the status quo when the status quo requires an acceptance you never knew you were giving.
Eventually the answer NO will come at you with such force you are compelled to explode it. Tear it apart. Then look at the shreds to see what really matters between you.
Perhaps this is what the earth is doing to us right now.
Or perhaps this is what we have done to the earth.
Sally Gander 