What is a "Yopp"????

By popular request (which is to say my mom asked me to explain), this is the origin for the title of this blog - The Daily Yopp!

Hopefully "Daily" is pretty self-explanatory. Basically my intention is to post a relatively simple but timely action every day that anyone can do without a significant investment of time or money. I'm pulling these actions from a lot of sources and sometimes I combine, expand, or contract other actions. As I'm moving forward with the blog, I'm striving to provide basic information and links that you can follow if you want to know more.

And....YOPP! What the heck does that mean???

Okay. This will require a bit more explanation. So some of you might remember the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a Who. Quick synopsis: Horton is an elephant who lives in the jungle with kangaroos, chimpanzees, eagles, and other assorted animals from many divergent biospheres. (I suspect this is sort of an animal kingdom United Nations.) Because of his big ears, Horton can hear things that the other animals cannot, and one of those things he hears is a tiny voice emitting from a dust speck that lands on a clover. Horton and the tiny voice begin communicating, and Horton learns that the dust speck contains an entire civilization of beings called Whos who live in Whoville (yes, the same Whos from Whom the Grinch stole Christmas). Unfortunately, the other jungle animals can't hear the tiny voice and decide that Horton must be bonkers, so they decide to help Horton get a grip on reality by destroying the dust speck by dropping it into a vat of boiling oil. (Helpful hint, if you are dealing with actual irrational/psychotic people, destroying their reality may not be best approach to healing.)

This creates a terrible crisis for the Whos. In order to save their world, they MUST be heard by the big animals. Everyone in town starts yelling, "We are HERE! We are HERE!" but their collective voices cannot pierce the atmospheric clouds surrounding their tiny world. They bang drums! They dance with jing-tinglers tied to their heels! They blow their floo-floober! They bang their tar-tinkers! They blow their Who-whoobas! They bang their gar-ginkas!

Oops...sorry. Just got possessed by Theodor Geisel. Anyway, the Whos try to make noise, but it doesn't work! The animals do not believe they exist!

So the Who that first communicated with Horton (the Mayor of Whoville) runs all around Whoville to find more people to make noise. He discovers an unassuming boy named JoJo who is quietly playing yo-yo. He grabs JoJo and takes him to a tower and implores the boy to add his voice to the others:

"This," cried the Mayor, "is your town's darkest hour!
The time for all Who who have blood that is red
To come to the aid of their country," he said.
"We've GOT to make noises in greater amounts!
So, open your mouth, lad!" For every voice counts!" 

Thus he spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top,
The lad cleared his throat and he shouted out, “Yopp!” 

And that Yopp… That one small extra Yopp put it over!
Finally, at last! From that speck on that clover
Their voices were heard! They rang out clear and clean.
And the elephant smiled. “Do you see what I mean?

JoJo's Yopp! ends up breaking through the atmospheric clouds and allows all the other voices to be heard. The animals stop trying to boil the dust speck in oil, and the Whos are saved!

So...yeah. Yopp! A Yopp! is a simple utterance from an unassuming citizen that puts us over the top.

We the People are powerful. As helpless/hopeless as we may feel at this point in history, the reality is that if we come together, nothing can stop us. Your voice, your Yopp! might very well be the ONE that is needed to break through to those in power and ultimately bring about the change we need.

Anyway...that's what is meant by the Daily Yopp!

Yours in Solidarity,

Kris

Horton Hears a Who - Full Movie