These are the ones who stopped holding.
For a long time they did what was expected of them. They stood straight, kept the cloth in order. They answered kindly when asked how they were managing, and managing was the word everyone used.
Then, one at a time, they let go. Their eyes closed. The cloth went loose.
And the wind, which had been there the whole time, took them the way it takes anything that has stopped resisting it.
They did not rise by growing stronger. They rose by putting it down.