YES
YES
YAYA BLASSO
YES C H A RY B D I S P R E S S new york
Published by Charybdis Press New York 2017 Charybdis Press Some rights reserved Printed and bound in the USA 15 14 13 12 4 3 2 1 First Edition http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Text, layout and design by Jason Blasso YES is set in Cisco, CiscoSerif, Rockwell & Whitman by Ken Lew www.charybdispress.com
to the other most profound and necessary word in our vocabulary
YES thank you for accepting everyone and everything unequivocally
YES
YES What a sound!
Infinitely embracing.
YES YES YES
This is a short companion book to the book of NO. It’s a much shorter book because it’s a book of absolute acceptance. The YES of this book is different from the yes that accompanies the NO in the book of NO. Both NO and YES need to be learned, as we are all born with the acquiescent yes we inherit under the yoke of the many power structures in our lives. From our parents, family, and friends, to our teachers and coaches, to the government and the military, to the police and the entire apparatus of law and justice, to our genetics, to our race and nationality, to our religion, science, and culture, we are all under the influences of many unseen and established forces. To these, the book of NO draws a line in the sand, holds up its hand, and confidently says NO to the institutions, people, and places we cannot abide. This great and audacious power of negation gives us the ability to select the people and environment best suited for us and reinforces our own inalienable sovereignty. But while this is a necessary step towards empowering ourselves and improving our individual liberty, the utterance of NO only avails itself upon the systems and structures of man. These systems are not, as we are told by those in power, permanent systems immune to change. They are systems that can and will change in time regardless of the schemes the authorities establish and enforce to resist this. It is because of this, that a timely placed NO can advance the fortunes and freedoms of all futurity.
Now, the YES of this book is, as has already been stated, the YES of absolute acceptance. It encompasses everything leaving nothing outside of itself because it is aware that everything is a part of itself. It is the silent YES spoken from a space between ourselves and everything, including ourselves, which is enfolded into the whole of totality. This is the point of contact, and thus the point of communication and communion, where we can come to understand that ourselves and everything in the world around us, from the largest galaxy down to the smallest quark and lepton, is exactly as it needs to be. And from this threshold, where we, simultaneously, both are and aren’t, we can look at ourselves and the surrounding world and be at peace. And after we have risen to this highest vantage point and turned to look down upon ourselves and the world, the YES of endless affirmation will remain upon our lips when we return to ourselves and the world. This is the YES that needs to be learned after one learns to use NO. The pattern here is a simple arc or closed circle: From the yes of acquiescenct innocence and immaturity, where we are subjugated by the world we are born into, we must learn to solidify our sense of sovereignty through brute experience by negating authority through the power of NO, and, having reached this point, we can return to a new innocence through the use of the YES of absolute acceptance.
Let it be known that as we progress along this path, we do not shed our former selves of yes and NO. Rather, they remain incorporated within us. The young yes exists right alongside the mature NO and wise YES. They are all peers and cannot be dispensed with no matter how hard we try. Usually, it’s the NO that cannot abide the younger yes and does its utmost to distance itself from the perceived weakness of its past. But occassionally it’s the subservient yes that does its best to defy the NO by accepting things it now knows better than to accept. And while the two remain locked in internal conflict that flares up and subsides, flares up and subsides, throughout the length of our short lives, the elder YES looks on, quietly observing, free of judgment, knowing everything is alright. To learn the YES, you don’t have to do much. Just find the spot where your NO won’t go and it’s magic power won’t work. And when you find that place, know you’ve found the place of YES. At first it’ll frighten you, and you’ll turn and run and hide. But try as you may to ignore it, once you’ve found it, you’ll find it popping up everywhere, especially where and when you least expect it. And when you finally muster the courage to confront it, and you fight it with all your might, it will laugh at you and your NO. Frustrated, you’ll throw yourself back at it with everything you got, and that’s when it’ll break you. And beaten and exhausted:
you’ll get it and admit defeat and finally utter
YES and again and forever
YES
YES