I happened to drive by an icebox. One of those large containers you see in the parking lots of grocery stores and gas stations that pump out ice and water for a couple bucks. If you stand by one of them long enough, you’ll see the magic of hard work at play. Car after car stopping by to fill up their ice chests with hope. Men in steel toe shoes and construction workers keeping their sandwiches and lunch items cool. Hunters prepping for the long weekend. Hustlers getting ice for their food truck or corner food sales. Customer after customer dropping a few bucks for a lifeline. Hoping to make that sale or just hoping to make it through the day.
This Labor Day Weekend had me thinking about hard work and how keeping your eye on the prize keeps your nose clean. Once you start dreaming pie in the sky, thoughts of grandeur can turn your dreams into an ugly illusion. Keep it simple, stay down to earth and fight like there’s no tomorrow. Prepare with the knowledge that failure is not an option—yes, you will struggle, but you’ll find a way. Don’t get lazy and don’t forget where you came from. Staying humble keeps you away from greed and away from the worst of all desires: power.
Power doesn’t have the ability to corrupt — it is already the root of all corruption. It gives the beholder the supposed authority to play favorites (because those people are, after all, the people who gave them power) and the idea that rules don’t apply to them. That what they are doing serves a higher purpose. Nothing corrupts more than the righteous indignation that what they’re doing is “right.” The desire for power comes from a an insatiable desire to make up for one’s own insecurities. The Napoleon complex is very real. But it doesn’t just refer to height. It refers to feelings of value and insecurity. People who feel “less than” their peers tend to desire power to achieve higher status. Overcompensating individuals use power to fulfill their need to make up for their shortcomings. And like a drug, power becomes all-consuming. It dictates behavior and emboldens the individual to escalate their activities to gain even more of it. Like a drug, power has the power to destroy lives.
I remember reading a book as a young adult called “Where the Red Fern Grows.” It’s a coming of age story about a young boy and his two beloved hounds and a grandfather who teaches him the value of hard work, hunting, love and loyalty. One day his grandfather teaches the boy how to hunt for raccoons. As the old man teaches the young boy the secrets of hunting, he shows him the trap of all traps. As I remember the story, the grandfather tells the boy he doesn’t need complicated machinery or expensive traps. Instead he shows him what in my mind looks like a small circular dome connected to a hallow tube long enough for a raccoon to stick its arm through. Inside the sphere is where you put the bait. The boy is wide-eyed intrigued. The grandfather tells the boy that the raccoon will stick its arm through the opening to grab the bait. Once the raccoon grabs it, his claw will become too big to fit back through the hole in the tube and becomes “trapped.” The boy claps and haws and is thoroughly excited by the genius of this invention. He can only imagine how many raccoon hats he’ll sell with his new trapping tool. Only to become saddened. He drops his head and the excitement that once overcome him, disappears. “But grandpa,” the boy says. “All the raccoon has to do is drop the bait, and his claw will come right back out of the trap.”
The grandpa smiles with a gleam in his eye expecting this response. “There’s something you need to know about raccoons,” he told him. Once a raccoon catches hold of something … he never lets go.
So it is with those who seek power. Yes ambition is good. In fact it’s great. Ambition helps the go-getters wake up early, buy ice and tackle a new day. With hopes and dreams of a better life, we each set out to make the best of our talents, resources and luck. That’s something to build on. One lego block at a time. All too often we see the greed and desire for power take hold. It’s like a shortcut. As if to say, I don’t need to wait in line. I’ve got my bait in hand right here. And there ain’t nobody gonna take it away. Leave the hangers-on who desire power — those who call to scare you into believing Armageddon is near, the other guy is corrupt, follow me, do as I say and we’ll have the glory of a perfect this or that. Do your own hustle, stay the course and fight like failure is not an option. Lest we allow those power hungry mongrels to take over.
Javier Sánchez is the former mayor of the City of Española, NM, and the co-owner of La Cocina New Mexican Restaurant.