Above and Beyond
Often, people make me question what the words “above and beyond” mean in an age when we’re obsessed with overworking and overstating. When Carmen told me that she will not go above and beyond in her activism, I started to think about what that meant based on what I knew about her. When someone approaches her about her hair, her dress, or her passions, she’s not likely to say, “Because I feel like it.” She’s more likely to give the questioner a set of bullet points deeply rooted in her research, her passion, and her experience. She doesn’t have to, and one might argue that the questioner might tune her out too (though that’s probably not going to happen based on Carmen’s tenor). But, because she does extend herself far enough to explain the reasons why her person is, she’s doing more than just being.
Above and beyond.
I don’t know what that looks like for the rest of us case-by-case. Sometimes, it’s a matter of how much we vocalize. Other times, it’s whether we actually make our presence felt. However it looks like, it’s usually a break