'The Best of All Rulers' by Lao Tzu

These lines were tucked away in my commonplace book nearly thirty years ago- when they helped me to think about the responsibility I had just been entrusted with: the task of leading a working group to take school nursing and medical services in a new direction in our area. Leading my soldiers in the Army was no problem at all: they followed my every footstep with the most intense curiosity just to see what the bloody hell I was going to do next. School nurses would be a different kettle of fish. Tell them what to do and they would come up with any obstructive excuse: 'it's illegal'.... or 'it's immoral'. Trump would understand what a nuisance minions can be.

 Reading the passage again now, I have to think about what it is that 'leads' me to tap on this keyboard, pick up a paintbrush or my guitar. Or just get out of bed in the morning. Having long ago begat my children and fulfilled (more or less) any useful social or professional functions, it leaves 'Evolution' (our current ruling deity) and its agent 'the Selfish Gene' (servile lackey and demi-urge) kicking their heels with the frustrating task of thinking up new nasty surprises for me while I waste even more valuable resources better used on newer, more advanced models....

 And yet. The words strike a deeper resonance well beyond whatever passing utility they once had: something to do with being forced to try to recognise the nature, persistence and seemingly unending demands of  the 'the shadowy presence'.




















'In His Presence' by Bernard Fleetwood Walker


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