There’s a quote by James Baldwin that has been echoing in my head lately like a stubborn song lyric you can’t shake
“I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.”
It feels like the quote of the moment. Maybe the quote of the decade.
Because everywhere we look right now from politics, institutions, social media, to relationships, there is an enormous amount of saying. Statements. Declarations. Positioning. Branding. Apologies. Explanations. Narratives.
Words are having quite a moment.
But behavior? Behavior is the quiet auditor in the room. Behavior doesn’t issue press releases. Behavior doesn’t curate a feed. Behavior simply shows up, again and again, doing what it does.
And over time it tells a story that words cannot edit. That’s what Baldwin was pointing at. Not cynicism. Not distrust. Something far more practical. Watch the pattern.
Because behavior is not random. It is the result of a person moving through the world in a particular environment with a particular set of instincts, fears, values, wounds, and desires.
People often say things they wish were true about themselves.
“I care about fairness.”
“I value honesty.”
“I’m committed.”
“I support you.”
“I’m trying.”
And sometimes they mean it when they say it. Truly. Humans are aspirational creatures. We love the version of ourselves we believe we are becoming.
But behavior is less aspirational and more revealing. Behavior is the body telling the truth the mouth is still negotiating with.
Now to be fair. Behavior is not created in a vacuum. It is shaped by environment. Pressure. Incentives. Stress. Culture. Opportunity. Fear.
Put a good person in a corrupt system long enough and you may start to see strange things happen. Put a frightened person in a moment of power and watch what emerges.
Environment pulls on us.
But here is where the quote becomes quietly profound because consistency matters.
Anyone can have a bad day. Anyone can contradict themselves once. Anyone can falter under pressure. But repeated behavior? Steady patterns?
That’s where something deeper begins to show itself.
Not perfection. But orientation.
A person who consistently protects the vulnerable is telling you something. A person who consistently avoids accountability is telling you something. A person who consistently disappears when things get hard is telling you something. A person who consistently shows up is telling you something too.
Behavior is the slow handwriting of character.
And if you look at the world right now, there’s a strange collective moment happening where many people feel like they are watching behavior more closely than ever.
Promises feel louder. But actions feel more revealing.
People are starting to notice the gaps. Not because they are cynical, but because they are paying attention.
In some ways Baldwin’s quote is not a warning. It’s a piece of quiet advice for staying sane in a noisy world.
Listen to words. Words matter. They tell you what people hope to be.
But watch behavior.
Because behavior tells you where gravity actually lives.
And gravity, unlike rhetoric, never lies.
Categories: Culture, current events, identity, Leadership, mental health, Pop Culture, Psychology, society
psychologistmimi 
“I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.”
-James Baldwin
Hehe Yet What Do You Do When All the Interactions are Text
True it could Be All ‘AI’ even a Blog Post Oh NO! Even this reply
Yet No
as there
is No way
a ‘Logic Machine’
Will Ever Be Able
to Finger Print the
Creativity of me that even
i Don’t Plan before the
Words Provide Shapes
Freely in Verse on Page
Dear Miriam Word Crafter too
For You See the Music of Soul
Comes Before the Lyrics of Words
And This is a Core Problem of the Truth
As Words Are Only Approximations of Reality
Indeed
Each and
Every Leaf
Unique of Every
Tree Never Ever
Fitting WHole in a Word
aHA even WHole Has A Hole
And Will Never Be Complete
as it makes No Sense at all
to Someone Who Doesn’t
Speak
Our
Language
Of Metaphors
That only Approximate Reality too…
So in Other Words Lie is not only the Word of the Month
Year Decade and Century Words are all Lies at Core only
Partial
Representations
of even a leaf of a Tree
Short and Sweet
As ‘Sting’ and ‘The
Police’ Relate too
“[Verse 1]
Don’t think me unkind
Words are hard to find
They’re only cheques I’ve left unsigned
From the banks of chaos in my mind
[Pre-Chorus 1]
And when their eloquence escapes me
Their logic ties me up and rapes me
[Chorus]
De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do, de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do, de da da da
They’re meaningless, and all that’s true
[Verse 2]
Poets, priests, and politicians
Have words to thank for their positions
Words that scream for your submission
And no one’s jamming their transmission”
i play with words all day long then i do what’s
Impossible with Words and Tale the Truth With Dance
-me
New Colors
every way
to dance
and sing free now
With Every SMile that dances true
Just Swiftly Shaking oFF ALL the ‘Orange Lies’
of the
Human Condition..:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s why we don’t believe men when they say they hold women up as princesses – because they hit and kill their princesses, ignore their wishes, make sure they have no choices about their own bodies…
That’s why we don’t believe a word that comes from this administration, because every one of them is proved a lie by the very next thing they do.
And that’s why we don’t believe ‘Christians’ – because they would starve school children, mind-control those same kids, torture prisoners, shoot anyone they think has dissed them, and gloat in the horrible things they do ‘in the name of Christ’ he would never have done – and said so EXPLICITLY during His life on Earth.
LikeLike
I sincerely doubt that people in general see the gaps between words and behaviour. Why would they then vote for the same scoundrels and liers at every single election? That happens everywhere, not just in the USA. Nobody remembers what happened 4 years ago and how all the promises got brushed under carpet after elections. They believe what is said here and now … again (We soon have Folketing election in Denmark, and it looks as if the most bold lier on public television will be Prime Minister again.)
LikeLiked by 1 person