Power
struggle
It grows late,
I feel my age and the pain that comes with maturity.
Not everybody ages in the same way; some don’t know we
are supposed to grow and change, and cling to old power lines that help carry
us through the arguments of life.
But we are chained to misconceptions, and we deceive
only ourselves.
Bob, the former editor, of the literary magazine was
supposed to turn over the reigns of power to me with the start of the new
semester. But he resists, and I’m stuck in a hard place because I distrust high
authority and do not want to have to rush off to Professor Nickson with the
problem.
Bob has controlled the magazine for two years and
would like to continue on this year if I would let him.
But it is time for the man to step down, even if he
has decided to remain on campus for his graduate work over in the art building,
he still must give up the club. He is no longer entitled to the position.
This is a lesson in politics I didn’t expect to learn,
and in some ways, I find myself studying him, and why someone like him needs to
cling to old institutions when he has whole new worlds to conquer.
I knew last
year when the decision was made for mad at me to take over and the Bob would
not agree. The position suited him too well. The good man likes his
high throne in this very low world. He was the printmaker, the ego builder,
the opinionated destroyer of talent.
He set the standard for who is cool in the college
literary world by agreeing to publish us or not.
But the magazine needs fresh blood to survive. We need
a new vision.
Under him, it has grown to be distorted and cramped
and heavy with the mood of despair, his despair. Under him, the voice of gaiety is muffled by his persistent
depression.
He’s a wolf going out the throat of the world for no
other reason than to satisfy his own personal drives.
He forgets that it is supposed to be a representation
of work and not one of personal tastes. He refuses to see the reality of
this.
Yet I still don’t want to push him out, or pry his
fingers loose so I can be the powerful one instead of him.
I still have some time. I’ll wait and see what he
does, and perhaps he will realize that even he will be better off moving on.