Sublime

A biographer of the novelist E. M. Forster wrote, “To speak to him was to be seduced by an inverse charisma, a sense of being listened to with such intensity that you had to be your most honest, sharpest, and best self.” Imagine how good it would be to be that guy.

We are constantly representing people to ourselves in self-serving ways, in ways that gratify our egos and serve our ends. We stereotype and condescend, ignore and dehumanize. And because we don’t see people accurately, we treat them wrongly. Evil happens when people are unseeing, when they don’t recognize the personhood in other human beings.

But the “wells . . .” seemed to miraculously disappear when discussing people similar to the leaders. And, if “wells . . .” did arise, suddenly leaders were more solution oriented. They could put their finger on exactly what was needed. Sample responses included for those aligned with the core group: “He’s a hard charger and puts in the extra work.

Ernest Shackleton, a member of Wooster Lodge 79 and Siloam Lodge 32 in Connecticut, was a pioneer Antarctic explorer. During an expedition in January, 1915, Shackleton's ship "Endurance" became locked in an ice floe. Eventually the pressure of the ice crushed the ship's hull, rendering it useless except for shelter and provisions. Shackle