Where Does Power Lie?
A REFLECTION ON SEASON TWO OF GAME OF THRONES
In a room, a king, a priest, and a rich man sit while a sellsword of common birth and common knowledge stands. Each of the three great men command the sellsword to kill the other two:
The king commands with the authority of law.
The priest commands with the authority of the divine.
The rich man commands with the authority of wealth.
So, who lives and who dies?
One might first side with the sellsword, for that seems logical. Does the sellsword side with duty, faith, or temptation? But that would mean that those with swords hold the power, and we all know that that's not true. Power is a shadow of a thought, a pall where we each individually think it covers.
Some believe there is power in titles and blood, differentiating between common names and family names. Power lies in birthrights and laws, whether they are just or unjust.
Others believe power lies in the heavens above and the realms below. Here, power lies in faithfulness to a creed, in prayers, ritual and recitation, whether the words are right or the words are wrong.
Still others believe there is power in owning. If you have the right amount of zeroes in your bank account, then you have the authority to throw your weight around.
Others demand power through violence, conquering and overpowering, spilling blood and demanding others to bow down to them. Others cultivate power through humility and service, and allowing others to rise up and seize their own power. Sometimes power is in honor, in the memory of an individual's good faith, and long after they are gone, their power still hangs over the land like a fresh pall of snow.
In the end, power is in our head. We either hand power over to others or we take it for ourselves. We can be prisoners of the mind or of the jail cell, or we can attain freedom in the most unlikeliest of places, even for a day, for brief moments in time.
In the end, however, when we are trying to figure out where the power lies, we may be distracted by real dominating forces that are out on the horizon, walking in the fields of foggy white, and when those forces come to our front door, it may be too late to band together for our own survival.
~Michael DeNobile
In a room, a king, a priest, and a rich man sit while a sellsword of common birth and common knowledge stands. Each of the three great men command the sellsword to kill the other two:
The king commands with the authority of law.
The priest commands with the authority of the divine.
The rich man commands with the authority of wealth.
So, who lives and who dies?
One might first side with the sellsword, for that seems logical. Does the sellsword side with duty, faith, or temptation? But that would mean that those with swords hold the power, and we all know that that's not true. Power is a shadow of a thought, a pall where we each individually think it covers.
Some believe there is power in titles and blood, differentiating between common names and family names. Power lies in birthrights and laws, whether they are just or unjust.
Others believe power lies in the heavens above and the realms below. Here, power lies in faithfulness to a creed, in prayers, ritual and recitation, whether the words are right or the words are wrong.
Still others believe there is power in owning. If you have the right amount of zeroes in your bank account, then you have the authority to throw your weight around.
Others demand power through violence, conquering and overpowering, spilling blood and demanding others to bow down to them. Others cultivate power through humility and service, and allowing others to rise up and seize their own power. Sometimes power is in honor, in the memory of an individual's good faith, and long after they are gone, their power still hangs over the land like a fresh pall of snow.
In the end, power is in our head. We either hand power over to others or we take it for ourselves. We can be prisoners of the mind or of the jail cell, or we can attain freedom in the most unlikeliest of places, even for a day, for brief moments in time.
In the end, however, when we are trying to figure out where the power lies, we may be distracted by real dominating forces that are out on the horizon, walking in the fields of foggy white, and when those forces come to our front door, it may be too late to band together for our own survival.
~Michael DeNobile
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