The Closet Prince

The Prince and the Common Man

I remember the oddest sensation … as a young man in my teens … that resembled the attitude of a prince. My mother would rail at such an attitude … especially when we skipped the household chores … telling us … we should have been born in a royal family. Well … the critique came closer to the truth … when I found in my teen years … a certain fanciful fascination … with life in a royal palace. I had thought it all right … who is it going to hurt? But my rational sense raised a strong complaint … about living sovereigns … and how I was going to grow up … confused over world political administration.

I clamped down on that … and it wasn't without some sense of loss at the special nature of my personality. But it also felt good to be simply the common man … making mistakes … learning … and simply being one of the boys. The change had a major impact on my personality. It induced an interest in science … and the epistemology of knowledge. It made me alert to the rights of individuals … and to the special natures of the ordinary … that fills our life with a joy … that is simply the joy of living.

It makes for a strange case … of mind warp … when a person applies their mind and passion … to the cultivation of a fantasy … in the pursuit of success in life. The mind is a rational instrument … and when subject to a delusion … deliberately created … makes for the most foul … ' cow's behind ' … in the matter of simple perceptions and opinions. Sadly .. we also refer to such warping of the mind … as a greater commitment to the cause … they serve. But do we need to support causes … with our lives ? And what happens … when it doesn't work out?

A popular case-study on management … is a case involving the founder of … Toy-R-Us … and his company president. There was a huge difference between the two men … and the perceptions was highlighted by the fact that … the president took a professional approach to making decisions … while the founding chairman … thought … the decisions lacked a focused achievement. No doubt the founder was accustomed to going for the jugular … on all issues. Besides it appeared that he resented anyone … who wasn't in for the … blood and guts … of the issues.

Children born … under circumstances of wealth … experience a peculiar attitude … of royal personage … that creates a subtle distortion of mind. My former college principal … at a college dinner function … had made no arrangements … to welcome the Deputy Minister of Education … on his arrival. It is protocol. Instead he responded to my question with … ' We don't do that.' I took the initiative to wait at the foyer … met the Deputy Minister on his arrival … and led him to the banquet hall. Incredible!

On a visit to Matsushita in Japan … I met the granddaughter of the founder … working at the main reception counter at the ground floor. We had exchanged cards … and when I looked up at her again … she gave me that … humility-is-a-virtue … smile before ushering me to the elevators. But I wonder … how many of these kids … get that practice at home. In growing into a … comfortable financial situation myself … I thought I had lost … my perspective on the issues. It has therefore been great … to return to the natural boyhood dreams of my adolescent … and to simply subscribe to that … rather than continue my make believe attitudes … that needed constant nursing.

Its therefore been my privilege … in my retirement years … to discern a world father … in the affairs of the world … who is not unlike … what I might call … an adolescent perception of father. I had missed that in the most terrible way … during my career … doing what I had to do. It made me wonder … why we can't do both … that is … a great career … in the company of a swell world father. I found the answer recently … and realized that … my adolescent father … was not well informed … hence my world father … had appeared to me like a bearded man of discipline … who frowned on wealth … and disapproved of the way I was translating … the moral messages of the scriptures.

Its not too hard to substitute for the adolescent world father … with our own version of father … but we need a commitment to it … with life and soul … the way my former college principal … managed himself. No doubt … this single act of contrivance … has led the way to the founding of a society … that has enriched the human experience. Each … at his turn in life … brings to the world's stage … his version of father … that carries society forward … to a greater advancement. In retrospect … I know that … I did not sin against the father … but raised his experience … of fatherhood.

I'm saying that … with the accountability … I was subject to … in respect of my career. We work with a bunched ego … that we steer carefully … for the achievements in our career. In retirement … we let go … and pass through a veil of challenges … against established norms of the past … in a society that is modernizing rapidly. Its a challenge that … pits our personal ambitions … with the vast scope of creation … that's more than personal success … national pride … or the provincial morality of faith. It tests our individual mettle … at understanding … what it takes to make the world work.

I seem to recall that our past notions of … world father … were founded primarily on faith … but in these times … we appear to bring the greater dictum of knowledge to it. And we do that … with our own discovery … of what a man is. A life lived … with an assembly of the passions and knowledge … in an open attitude of accountability … moves ahead of all else … lived in the closet of assurances. We find that ... in the human body … lived as the field of truth … not too far … from the growing adolescents in the new generation.