Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Power

Is there anything simpler than the pursuit of power?

I couldn't throw away this accidental image recently. It was simply too beautiful to delete, even though it has no particular identifiable meaning. Perhaps because I was thinking about power.

In the opening of Lord of the Rings there is a voiceover sequence that describes the various families of Middle Earth and describes the family of man in not so kind words: "... nine rings were gifted to Men, who above all else, desire power ..." Being human myself, I must admit that power can be seductive, although I've never quite understood it all completely. In an earlier part of my life, I had thought that power was influence. In a later part, I thought it was position. And then soon after that realization, I then realized that there is nothing more powerless than a person in a position of power. More recently I realize that when given the right opportunities, there is power to do real good. And that there is no other power that should matter in one's mind.

Yet it happened yesterday, that I was awakened to another power that I had completely forgotten. That was the power of creativity. Because creativity lies at my very existence, I never had given it much thought. I had given up on many things, and had consigned myself to Lord Acton's belief that, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The Dark side always beckons. I was somehow deaf to an important corollary that I came upon last night on a return trip from NYC, "Creativity empowers, and resolute creativity empowers resolutely." This is my core belief, and I have found a way to return to what matters. Synthetic power means nothing, when there isn't power within. Time to juice up.

Posted by maeda at February 24, 2005 03:23 PM