Before Rule: There Before Here - The Other Side Of The Blade
Here Teaches What. There Teaches Why. This Essay Teaches How.
Work is what leaves your hands. Meaning is what returns.
Once you understand, your work does not change. You do.
Thwack.
Thwack.
The machete enters the husk.
Thwack.
The pod opens. Wet, pale beans spill into his palm.
Thwack.
Another pod. Another beginning.
He knows the ripe color. The angle of the blade.
The pod that opens cleanly.
The pod that makes him work.
The pod that earns his living.
The Farmer Knew Cacao: Cut. Gather. Ferment. Dry. Sack. Sell.
The truck comes. A price is named. The sacks leave.
He knows every motion before the road.
After the road, his work becomes an unknown destination.
The Farmer Didn’t Know Chocolate: A reporter arrives.
She carries a camera. The farmer carries memories.
She asks about the trees. The farmer tells her about the fruit.
She asks about the pods. The farmer shows her.
She asks about the blade. The farmer asks her to try.
Thwack.
For the farmer, it is his work.
For the reporter, it is where the story begins.
He Carries A Blade. She Carries What The Blade Produces: She has come to ask what the farmer knows. In her bag, she carries what the farmer has never met.
Then she asks:
“Have you ever tasted chocolate?”
The farmer looks at her.
“Chocolate?”
The blade does not fall.
The reporter reaches into her bag.
The Other Side Of The Blade Fits In His Palm: The bar is small.
Silver-wrapped.
Ordinary in one world. Unknown in his.
The farmer turns it in his hands.
The same hands that cut the pods, filled the sacks, and took the payment now hold what his work has become.
He peels back the silver.
The smell arrives first.
Dark.
Sweet.
Same cacao… but different.
Snap: For the first time, cacao makes a sound after the blade.
He breaks off a square.
He places it on his tongue.
The first taste is bitter.
He knows that part.
Then the bitterness opens.
Sweet.
Smooth.
Deep.
The bitterness was expected.
The sweetness was unexpected.
The Blade Made Him Expert. The Chocolate Made Him A Beginner: His hands knew the origin.
The destination belongs to a world beyond them.
The chocolate has also passed through machines he never saw, rooms he never entered, and people he never met.
The chocolate had traveled to another country, then back again.
He had mastered his part of the work.
Part of its meaning was waiting downstream.
The Chocolate Returned Meaning. It Did Not Return The Value: A taste can close one distance without closing the others.
The bar showed him what the crop became. It did not return control over the value the crop created.
Do not make meaning perform the work of justice.
He had never tasted what his work became.
Most of us have never seen what our chocolate requires.
He knew the labor without the sweetness.
We know the sweetness without the labor.
For him, the other side of the blade was chocolate.
For us, it is the field.
There Is No Reporter Coming For You: No one may arrive at your field with a silver wrapper.
No one may place your work in your hands and say, “This is what it became.”
So become your own reporter.
Choose one piece of work that has already left your hands.
A sentence you sent.
A patient you helped.
A lesson you taught.
A problem you solved.
A kindness you offered.
Ask one person what changed after it reached them.
Follow it farther than your hands.
Do not ask only whether they liked it.
Ask what it changed.
What became easier?
What became possible?
What traveled farther than you expected?
Reaction tells you how the work landed.
Consequence tells you what it changed.
You are not gathering praise.
You are tracing the road.
Here Gives Footing. There Gives Direction: Here teaches the work.
There reveals what the work becomes.
Here without There becomes motion without direction.
There without Here becomes purpose without footing.
The blade will rise tomorrow.
Thwack.
The pod will open.
The work will leave his hands again.
Thwack.
But the sound no longer ends at the sack.
Work is what leaves your hands.
Meaning is what returns.
Sing-Alongs Welcomed: The essay provides a framework for your mind. This short video gives your body the beat. You give the idea its spark.
Most everything you need to (know) hear.
AI-Generated Music © The Before Rules™
You’ve Read The Book, Now See The Movie:
© The Before Rules™
Before Rules: Laws are written for you. Rules are created by you.
The Before Rules are three-word systems for achieving real outcomes by putting the right thing first. Built on the sequence Here | Before | There, they clarify what must come first so progress becomes actionable, repeatable, and real. Examples include: Deposits Before Withdrawals, Through Before To, and Obstacle Before Opportunity. Visit BeforeRules.com to learn more.
Your Thoughts May Vary: The Before Rules welcomes your constructive comments and invites you to share your perspectives and experiences. Together, we can all refine our understanding and application of these concepts.
Disclaimer: Click here for our Disclosures, Disavowals, And Declarations (aka - I told you so).