A Leader, With No Followers!

"Don’t follow leaders Watch the parkin’ meters..." - Bob Dylan

Yes. I have incorporated that line into my own personal code for most of my life. I don't really want to be a follower. I am not looking for a leader to follow. I pay the meter when I have to, I don't try to draw any attention from the "powers that be."

I prefer to be my own leader, a leader with with no followers, ok, maybe a leader with one follower. Me. It's a lonely road, but I'm okay with being alone.

"If my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guilotine..." - Bob Dylan

I am interested in the idea of leaders. I think of folks who lead by example. Usually they have suffered at the hands of some injustice, or indignity, and have carried on with grace and courage, or maybe they have always just been gifted with grace and courage and have no problem standing alone. There are very few folks who could qualify. I think of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Thomas Merton, Ho Chi Minh, Dali Lama.

I mean, there are plenty of folks who we never hear of that show these qualities. The common decent folk. I know they are out there somewhere. I look for wisdom and courage where I can. Mostly, human beings are pretty much a disappointment. So many of us come up short. I mean, hell, it's okay, it's only life, it's a struggle! But we should struggle. Fight our worst instincts, and listen to our better angels. That's an idea!