Good Morning.
Human beings are ambitious, most of them anyway. They have goals they'd like to achieve, some impossible to imagine, some rather modest. They want to go to med school or law school as long as they can figure out how to pay for it. They want to own a small business like a car repair shop, a tree trimming service, or a dog grooming outfit. In recent times a lot of folks have opted to work out of the house so they can make money in their pajamas. These people decorate wedding cakes in the kitchen, put out newsletters from the home office, and conduct yoga classes in the family room. Americans also have goals unrelated to their employment, something we now refer to as The Bucket List. They're determined to sail among the islands of the Caribbean, read everything written by Ernest Hemingway, or walk along the Great Wall of China. Their greatest goal may be to live until a certain milestone birthday.
Those are the good guys. Their less honorable fellow citizens are hell-bent on acquiring power and money, whatever it takes. The dog groomer and the car repair owner are fine with making a decent living, but the grand schemers are just that; they concoct elaborate plans to achieve the power and wealth they desperately crave. They need public recognition, a big title on
the door, even a building or five named after them. They thrive on the pomp and circumstance that comes with fame and fortune. We know who they are because they stick out like sore thumbs in our midst - sore, indeed, because they hurt people. It's more important to be at a board meeting in San Francisco than it is to be at a family birthday party in the back yard. Christmas and Easter are inconvenient because the ego trip has to stop for a day or two. Everyone around them is expected to bow and scrape and those who decline to do so often suffer terrible consequences.
Power is the greatest addiction on earth. It's a drug with a physical reaction just like any other drug. The brain goes cuckoo,
and the person falls into a pattern of lying, stealing, and doing whatever else is necessary in order to get another fix.
Family members, employees, and even casual acquaintances are ignored, neglected, and emotionally and verbally abused;
the victims may be a staff member, a long-suffering spouse, or impressionable, innocent children. The power tripper
is like the alcoholic, the cocaine addict, or the person with a gambling problem - only worse because the addiction is so contrived, so carefully planned. Degrading other people, including through sexual misconduct, is a big part of the rush. Nothing shows power like the ability to seduce or even assault when necessary.
Many people reach their sunset years and privately regret that they never got the brass ring, whatever that is. There's a gnawing feeling that they weren't successful because in this country we measure success by the size of everything - the house, the stock portfolio, the wardrobe, the price of the furniture. Regular folks looking in the rear view mirror can't point to the golden shovel propped up in the corner of the den or the gift from the crown prince of somewhere because they don't have that stuff. They have pictures of their kids and grandkids on the wall, they volunteer at the hospital, they tend their gardens, play a little golf, and sit around every morning with a coffee group. They actually have friends because they've made other people's lives pleasant rather than painful.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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