Power
“Mastering
others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.”
Lao
Tzu
Temperatures
in Birmingham have hovered around 100 degrees for several days.
Everyone huddles inside their houses where the air conditioning runs
non-stop. All business establishments are as cold as meat-lockers. We
pat ourselves on the back for being so good at managing our
environment. But last night, a big wind blew through for five minutes and took this
entire end of the city off the grid. Mother Nature demonstrating just
how much power we truly have.
It
seems an appropriate moment to think about power in general. What
happens to us when we have it, and when we lose it. According to
Friedrich Nietzsche, “love of power is the demon of men.” We can
have everything we want—health, wealth, home, family, status—and still be
unhappy, because that demon is never satisfied. When we, as an
individual or as a nation, see that we are losing power, we become
afraid and go into defensive mode. We pull out the weaponry and the
anger, we build walls, and throw tear gas, and parade around with
symbols of domination. We are like Joshua at the Battle of Jericho,
surrounding the city and blowing our trumpets. We threaten and
denounce. We create fear on the other side of the divide, so they too
pull out the big guns and demonstrate. We meet force with force, and
the dance goes on. This kind of power is driven by our lower
brain—the one we share with reptiles.
“Lizard
brain” power has dominated the earth for thousands of years. But,
there is another kind of power, and that is the power of calmness and
self-control. It is the power of non-violence and diplomacy; the
power of listening and negotiating. It is not hierarchical, top down
power, but the power of peer communication. Alfred Lord Tennyson
described it this way: “Self-reverence, self-knowledge,
self-control; these three alone lead one to sovereign power.” Power
such as this is governed by our higher brain—the one we share with
one another.
As
an individual, I fall far short of rising above my instinctual
nature, but I want to make progress in that direction. I have a great
deal of respect for those who have. My question is this: What sort of
leader do you want to follow—a reptile, or a caring human being?
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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