I am not a leader. Not in temperament, nor by desire, nor heritage, nor popular demand. I am a small player in a small area in a large world. When my day is past, I will be remembered, I hope, by those whose lives I have touched. I will be remembered, I hope, fondly.
Perhaps those who have known me, or who have been affected by the battles I have waged and the work I have done, will relate to their children memories of George Berry. Perhaps not. But likely, beyond that second generation, my name and deeds are fated for the musty corners of forgotten history. That thought no longer saddens me, for I believe success in life is measured by the added value we bring to those we love, and to those who love us. I am not suited for the fame of a king, or the grandiose reputation of a giant among men - like the leaders of our time, who reshape the world in ways that will affect generations yet to come.
Our presidents, like the kings of old, add to our society in ways that define the lives of their fellow people, and so one such as he will live on in name and deed for as long as our society survives - for millennia, likely, and hopefully.
So, often I wonder the ways of the ’king’, the thoughts of the ruler, the pride and the magnanimity, the selfishness and the service.
There is quality that separates a leader of a smaller group like a general of an army, from a man who presides over an entire country. For the general, surrounded by men looking for leadership and who claim friendship, kin and kind are one and the same. If he is kind and benevolent, he holds a vested interest, truly a friendship, with every man, every woman, every color who surround him. Their wounds are his wounds, their joys his joys. Their isn’t one he doesn’t know by name, and not one he dose not love as family.
The same can not be true for the man who leads a larger nation. However good his intent, however true his heart, for a man who presides over thousands, millions, there is an emotion distance of necessity, and the greater the number of his people, the greater he distance, and the more the people will be reduced to something less then people, to mere numbers.
Ten thousand live in this city, he will know. Five thousand reside in that one, and only a few hundred in that town.
They are not family, nor friends, nor faces he would recognize. He cannot know their hopes and dreams in any particular way, and so, should he care, he must assume and pray that there are indeed common dreams and common needs and common hope. A good leader will understand that this shared humanity and will work to uplift all in his wake. This man accepts the responsibilities of his position and follows the noble cause of service. Perhaps it is selfishness, the need to be loved and respected, that drives him, but the motivation matters not. A leader who wishes to be remembered fondly by serving the best interests of the people leads wisely.
Conversely, the leader who rules by fear, whether it be of him or of some enemy he exaggerates to use as a weapon of control, is not a man or woman of good heart.
In the matter of making war, a leader will find his greatest legacy - and is this not a sadness that has plagued the reasoning men and women for all of time? In this too, perhaps particularly in this, the worth of a leader can be clearly measured. No man can feel the pain of a soldiers particular wound, but a good leader will fear that wound, for it will sting him as profoundly as it dose to the man upon whom it was inflicted.
Considering the numbers who are his subjects, a good leader will never forget the most important number: one. If a general cries victory and exclaims that only ten men died, the good ruler will temper his celebration with the sorrow for each, one alone repeated, one alone adding weight to his heart.
Only then will he measure his future choices correctly. Only then will he understand the full weight of those choices, not just on the country, but on the one, or ten, or five hundred, who will die in his name and for his holdings and their common interest. He who feels the pain of every mans wounds, or the hunger in every child’s belly, or the sorrow in every destitute parent’s soul, is one who will place country above crown and community above self. Absent that empathy, any ruler, even a man of previously stellar temperament, will prove to be no more then a tyrant.
Perhaps the world will end before the goodly people of our world enjoy the peace and prosperity of the perfect society.
So be it, for, as it is said, it is the journey that matters most.
That is my hope at least, but the flip of that hope is my fear that is all a game, and one played most prominently by those who value self above community. The accent to leadership is a road of battle, and not one walked by the gentle man or woman. The person who values community will oft be deceived and destroyed by the knave whose heart lies in selfish ambitions.
For those who walk the that road end to end, for those who feel the weight of leadership upon their shoulders, the only hope lies in the realm of conscience.
Feel the pain of your soldiers, you kings.
Feel the sorrow of your subjects.
Nay, I am not a king. Not by temperament nor by desire. The death of a single man would slay the heart of George Berry. I do not envy the goodly rulers, but I do fear the ones who do not understand that their numbers have names, or that the greatest gain lies in the cheers and the love fostered by the common good.
It is in this that the world will start to become a better place for all.
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Confessions of a Crowned Clown
To be honest, I'm probably going to be using this as a place to vent out my thoughts when they get built up enough, and hopefully use it to help me sort through some things.
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everroyal
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