It is amazing how often and transparently the rules to no apply to those at the top. Presidents get away with behavior that would have gotten everyone I know fired. Prime Ministers deceive the very people they serve and the rhetoric suggests that this is all part of the job. Bosses and corporations exploit employees under the mantra of higher profits and efficiencies. Everywhere you look the rot in society applies equally, from the lowest to the highest, from the bottom to the top.
It the midst of all this it is so easy to apply the “standards” to everyone but yourself. You can see their failures and know that somehow their fall will help your climb. So the automatic, righteous, and natural reaction is to expose their weaknesses to those in positions of power and decision making.
Is this really our role? Has “making” it to the top come to a formula dependent on our ability to “communicate” behind the scenes? We can wrap our behavior in any setting up in whatever rationalization we like however Wisdom’s warning still applies.
“Don’t blow the whistle on your fellow workers behind their backs; they’ll accuse you of being underhanded, and then you’ll be the guilty one!” (Proverbs 30.10)
I look back and see more questions than answers. I find myself telling stories that do not help, nurture, or even help communicate; they are, if I am critical, thinly veiled slashes with a knife hoping to clear the next rungs on the ladder. It doesn’t seem to matter if you are in corporate life or struggling to survive as a secretary or even working in a market. The difficult question remains; am I helping or hurting? After my move, is the person better off or facing an even steeper climb?
Today presents a new cycle of opportunities. You and I will contribute in positive or negative ways in the lives we share in only for a brief period of time. Today I am standing with the Sprit of Compassion, Mercy, and Love – tall, willing, and fully committed.
