Invent an Opposite

A lie is the opposite of a kiss because a kiss is a mutual promise of adoration. A lie is self-serving. It takes away trust, love, and everything else whereas a kiss gives.

If green conjures images of growing life, then depression is green’s opposite. You may think brown would be a more accurate opposite because 1) it’s actually a color, and 2) brown is often the color of desolate wastelands. But, much more often than not, brown is the source of uncountable life; think: biodiverse swamps, a world dependent on grains, infinite bacteria and all the life that soil nutures. On the other hand, as anyone who has ever had it can attest, depression is unmistakably the opposite of green, lush life, of creativity and passion, of soul. Depression takes and kills; green gives and births.

Another highway lane, in a desperate but foolish bid to address traffic, is the opposite of a train. Surely, you know this? The picture that may instantly come to mind is that of the comparison between cars and buses in terms of how much space they occupy in transporting the same number of people. If you can’t picture that, search “bus vs car usage.” It’s well established that adding another lane to the highway does not do anything to meaningfully address traffic or congestion: the amount of traffic adjusts to the capacity of the road, ultimately resulting in the same amount of congestion. In this way, another lane is the opposite of a train (or a bus), which is the true, American-forgotten mean of effectively transportating large numbers of people long distances. Billionaires and the car industry are to blame, but public transit is the people’s transit.

A man, a boy, really, sits in the dark at the dinner table, surrounded by singing family. A candle-lit cake glows in front of him, and while he smiles and is genuinly enjoying his family’s love, thoughts of distance, the opposite of birthday cake, will return. The boy grows into a man, and all along the way, he feels that nobody truly knows him, until, being the common factor across all these experiences, he finally realizes this is an indictment of him: he doesn’t engage with people nor nuture meaningful relationships. Indeed, he has fenced himself in his own, safe mind – where the only one who can judge him is himself – not until now understanding that his solitary anxieties are silent in good company. The cure for distance and fences is cake and engagement.