Power

“My theory of dispersed power is confirmed daily. Power shatters like the mirror in Andersen’s fairy tale, and a splinter sticks in nearly every heart. Teacher—pupil, doctor—patient, sales clerk—customer: all these relations take shape on the plane of power and dependence. It’s a disease of the system. Even the cleaning woman in the courtyard screams at the tenants about throwing trash from their balconies. But those are just the petals dropped from the only tree in the yard.

‘Clean up after your dogs,’ she yells at me.
It doesn’t matter that I don’t have dogs. She’s got her shard of power, the right to yell.”
~Anna Kamienska