What it Means…

Last week I wrote about a dream. In it, a little boy pushes me around, but I don’t react. However, being a systems-guy, who looks at cause and effect, I take an opportunity to speak with his mother. Overwhelmed by stress, she withdraws into a puddle of tears and shame. Obviously, this woman has succumbed to the tyranny of life.

Shortly after that encounter, I stumble across the boy’s father. He dismisses me with nary a consideration of my purpose. Not one to be easily rebuffed, I pursue his attention — but that too leads nowhere. Eventually I succeed, not in making my point — which is my concern for the boy’s future — but I do capture the man’s attention and he and his crew chase me.

As I run away, the dream ends.

Initially, this dream seemed significant, but no meaning leaped from my mind or heart. As I retold the story to my family, it became clear.

The boy was a minor petty tyrant. His father was a petty tyrant. The boy could not inflict actual harm and was in fact a mere annoyance. The mother, on the other hand, was caught in the middle and was a victim of those around her — both the father and son. The father clearly is a petty tyrant — ruling over his perceived domain with arrogance, fear, and pride.

Though the information I possessed would be valuable to the father, his arrogance wouldn’t allow him to hear me. As I persisted, for his own good, he grew angry and sought to do harm to me. Not because of the information I wished to share, but because of his pride. I annoyed him; I sought to bring him out of his cocoon of blissful ignorance.

In my life there are many who seek to be large and in charge. Institutions, employers, governments, traditions, people, and systems — all of these are outside of my control. Though I’ve spent most of my life trying to improve the world around me, I’ve come to the conclusion that most (many?) are unconcerned with the information I have to offer. They aren’t looking for new solutions, better methods, or excellence. For the most part people just want to live their lives in sweet, blissful, ignorance.

My attempts at drawing attention to areas of improvement seem to just annoy most people. The Church, the Government, employers, and other petty tyrants would just like to assume their positions of dominance and control.

Taking a clue from the Seer Don Juan in “The Fire from Within,” it would be best to bide my time with patience and exemplary behavior, all the while, learning from the petty tyrants in my life. Even welcoming these petty tyrants and seeking them out for the purpose of character development.

Maybe this is what Paul was saying to Onesimus in his letter to Philemon?