hOly-bytes: ordinary holiness 3 june 2021____power over, power with
In who or what do you put your trust? External authority (read, presidents? pundits? institutions?) or Internal authority (read, the Spirit of Wisdom, the prophet with you?) At the root of the matter is the question, “To what kind of power do you subscribe? Power over? Power with?” An ageless question.
Listening to Wisdom from Within, the prophet Samuel recognizes the propensity of kings and rulers to use their power over people for personal gain. Believing the grass is greener on their neighbor’s desert the ancient people of Israel ignore Samuel’s warning that a king will use power over the people to perpetuate his power; forcing their sons, daughters and slaves into service, excessively taxing their resources and confiscating their land. The whispered prophetic wisdom from within held no sway against the people’s desire to “be like other nations” and have “a king reign over” them. (1 Samuel 8.4–20)
Three thousand years later we, the human race, face the same question. In whom or in what shall we place our trust? The pandering of pundits? The promises of politicians? Feckless form in hollow halls?
Rather than capitulate to warring dualities of this or that, perhaps it is time to hold both external and internal authority to account. Like ancient kings our social, political and religious institutions have fine tuned their exercise of power over the people to insure their privilege and perpetuity. Meanwhile twentieth century’s privileging of individualism manufactured us as exceptionally obsessed by title, rights and wealth. Winking at community, it is “all about me.”
How shall twenty-first century WE re-form our dis-integrating dis-ease?
Wizened Innocence
Silken cherub waits
Furrowed sage elucidates
Mortal doors concede
Essence and ardor lead
Wizened innocence awakes
To read Debra Asis’ weekly posts beginning 2010
