Photo by Gun z on Unsplash
28 Worshipful attention from your
children?
Do you want your children
to admire you? How about worshipful attention? Are
the two differentiable?
Worshipful attention
appears sweet until, like sugar, it has negative impact.
Happily, I watched Shakespeare’s King Lear before begetting
children. I knew it was important for my children to
differentiate between leadership that deserved respect and
leadership that needed forgiving. Their selection mattered,
and fortunately they chose well what to follow and what to
forgive. Looking back, I cringe with King Lear at many
episodes I thought at the time were praiseworthy. It is
good that they can set aside much of what I said, because I have
also set it aside.
This article is not about
praising my children’s advanced understanding; their wisdom is
its own reward. Today’s call to action is to perceive
reality as it unfolds. We have previously noted that we
live in worlds of our own creation. My maturation has
consisted of entering a more understanding world. My children,
with more modern education, had preceded me into it. They
were able to see me from a more contemporary (even if
subordinate) perspective. In short, we learn from our
children.
How blessed would be the
world if citizens were as understanding as my children, and if
leaders were able to learn. We subordinates sometimes need
to be rescued from our follies by leaders with greater
experience. Nevertheless, wise leaders are the ones who,
like wise parents, forsake dictatorship and experience progress
along with the subordinates who have more contemporary education
and aspiration. My children adapted my vision to the next
generation of practical realities. Likewise, on a world
scale, effective leaders are the ones with vision that can be
adapted to ever evolving modernity.
This is summarized in the wisdom of Lao-Tzu:
Go to the
people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they
know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when
the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say 'We
have done this ourselves.’
Being For Others Blog copyright © 2020 Kent Busse
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