Essential Nature

Follow the Leader

“Each of us has a unique set of circumstances that make up our lives and how we are derives from a combination of our conditioning, our innate nature, our experiences, and our environment.”

                                      David Ross (Pearls of Wisdom)

One of the most difficult notions to accept is that what any one of us can do, all of us are capable of under the right conditions. Speaking about acts of kindness and generosity as well as acts of atrocity, we human beings have the capacity for both.

Some of us are simply born with a rebellious nature. If you are a parent, you know right away which of your children has this nature. Over the course of a lifetime, we choose to exercise our tendency to push the limits in various ways. Some of us go into professions that allow us to put that adversarial nature to good use, like law and social action. Some of our greatest orators, Martin Luther King, Jr. for instance, used their rebellious nature to move others to achieve great things. Others, like Adolph Hitler, use it to inflict unspeakable harm.

Some of us are not, by nature, rebellious, but we are easily influenced by people with strong ideas and persuasive personalities. We will be convinced of the rightness of a cause or situation by someone who is charismatic and certain of the truth of their convictions. We may become the best possible workers and producers if we have a strong leader who rewards us for our efforts. We will believe what they believe because we believe in them. Political campaigns depend on this, and so do rock stars, preachers and successful CEO's.

We see this scenario play out everyday. We've witnessed it this week with the Boston Marathon bombers—an older brother persuaded a younger one to join him in a reign of terror. Citizens heeded the call of their leaders and stepped up to assist in finding the brothers. When one person tweeted 'Boston Strong' millions followed, until it was spilling over in every area of the country.

What about you? Is your essential nature to be a rebel? And, if so how do you express that tendency? If you love a strong leader, how do you choose?

                                            In the spirit,

                                               Jane