“Someone paid the piper and we all sang along, but we’ve forgotten why we’re singing; we’re lost in the song.” Lost in the Song, David E White, 1999.
I wonder…what disturbs our peace and contentment so persistently, yet invisibly? We find appeal in the concept of the simple life, but we continue to fill our schedules with obligations, responsibilities, new pursuits and causes to serve. For all the years that humankind has been on the planet, the vast majority of lives have not been famous, remarkably significant, or even remembered, yet something in us seems to long for significance.
Is a leader, who has served in relative obscurity, less significant than one who has achieved fame? Is fame important; does it define the quality of a person, a leader, in any way? I am not suggesting that it is improper to live a famous life, if that is where the journey in life leads you – but to pursue it is another matter.
How many people does it take to make a leader happy?
“Upward mobility” can mean different things when describing different people. For one person it is the description of huge potential, capacity and capability, but for another it can be a drivenness; a posture that is bent on being at the top – whatever/wherever that is. The latter is most often personified by a selfishness and imbalance; a constant need to fill hole in their self that leads them to be insensitive toward others and justify their actions in the pursuit of their goal. It seems to take having many people under these leaders for them to be filled, yet they never are. These people are easily visible – and they generally are not interested in anything I would have to say in this blog…so I won’t bother exploring further.
What does it take for the rest of us to find peace amidst our life schedule, or maybe a better question is, “what robs us of peace?” What keeps us saying yes to more, or expanding our reach? One of the most significant changes over the time that humans have walked the planet is our volume of communication – and this only in the past 100 years, or less. I find it interesting to note that King Solomon of the Israel wrote, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” – and specifically that he wrote this around 1011 BC! Do we need more large platform leaders, or do we need more men and women who will take the position of leadership as a service to whomever they are working with, taking the time to be attentive to them without distractions, with a bone-marrow depth of trust that true significance is not found in the number of people that ever know their name, but rather connected to the transcendent story of humankind that is being written through out all ages – largely beyond their control.
Our society is partly defined as a marketing machine. We create a feeling of need within people so that we can sell them more. The piper has been playing this tune for a while now…maybe its time for a new song, or an old one that we forgot.
