The Will to Resist

Jerry’s Marginalia — The Crowbar Illusion

There’s a certain type of person who sees every crack and reaches for a crowbar.

Not because it needs fixing— but because they need to feel like the one fixing it.

So they pry. They widen. They force something open that was never asking to be opened.

And now?

What was once a minor flaw becomes a full collapse.

But then there’s the other type.

The one who looks at the same crack and asks a better question:

“Does this actually affect me?”

If the answer is no?

They keep walking.

No commentary. No correction. No performance.

Because they understand something most don’t:

Not everything broken is your responsibility. And not everything imperfect is your problem.

The crowbar feels powerful.

Heavy. Decisive. Final.

But power isn’t in forcing outcomes.

It’s in knowing when:

your absence is the fix.

So you pass it.

You leave it.

You don’t add pressure to something already under strain.

And in doing that—

you avoid becoming the reason it breaks.

“Not every crack needs a crowbar. Some just need to be walked past.”

— Jerry “The Ankle Biter” Silverhand