Matters

Somewhere in time, people

started insisting

on mattering...

Black lives matter.

Yes, that was the time

in recent history that "matter"

caught in the brain.

That people can resist

this simple, true sentence with contempt

is a reality too ugly to ignore, but

the truth in the sentence by itself,

even deeper than its original purpose to resist violence,

is profound if you think about the word for a while.

Matter - the substance that constitutes everything of substance.

Matter/s - have/has meaning.

Matter/s - are/is important.

Matter/s - merit/merits listening to.

Matter/s - are/is being defended in the court of words.

You can find "...matter" or "...matters" in ads

for new medications and personal products

(and all kinds of products that we may need to be convinced have

anything to do with being a person)

And it is usually not

the product itself that "matters" in the slogan. Maybe

"your comfort" matters, or "your health," or "your happiness" matter; they

are of the substance that constitutes everything of substance.

So the implication is that if comfort, health, or happiness

matter, and this product can bring or add some of that

to your life, you are affirming your own place

in the substance that constitutes everything of substance too.

I use the word "matter" to defend what I love,

when I sense it might be dismissed: flowers matter,

I might say. Beauty matters. These things have meaning

to me, so please, I imply, don't tell me to move on. Don't

tell me what I love does not have substance.

I will keep using matter in this way, and people

have used it this way for ages, but

there is something

to be said for pausing

to remember why

a sentence's form can feel like an echo,

and why anything or anyone

is ever defended in the court of words.

(The phrase "Black Lives Matter" was coined by Alicia Garcia in 2013 in a Facebook post in response to George Zimmerman's acquittal of Treyvon Martin's murder.)