Something Else
I note:
great people, natural leaders:
I thought
it was to do with statesmanship, stewarding, charisma.
But no.
It is simply rock-bottom Faith.
(I did not say belief!).
It is not that they are perfect
or always right. Or are necessarily Male.
Nor are filling a vacuum,
opportunist power-weilders.
It is to do with Timing.
And there is no degree course
or training in Faith
except via error and experience,
and by Grace.
Greatness can be in skills
as much as brain-power or sanctity.
Happening rarely,
dotted randomly around the globe
as if by chance.
Aristotle, Thoth, Pythagoras, Plato, Da Vinci,
Einstein, Mahler, Galileo, Krishnamurti,
…Newton, Pankhurst, Nightingale, Mozart, Bell;
Genghis, Cyrus, Mao, Lenin.
..
Greatness on its own can be good.
Or bad. The weft or woof,
throw of the karmic dice
from a spectrum of possible options.
But when two of a kind, in Faith
pop up in the same place and time something else is going on.
Those are the heroes and icons
who do not fade by dying.
Who inspire the collective psyche,
love is their medium. The tough sort.
Integrity and courage.
Doing, being what they are:
what the circumstance requires…
Mahatma, Mandela, Tesla, Tolstoy, Tutu,
Mother Teresa, Bhutto, Ken Dodd, Luther King,
Ma-chu-zhe, Malala, Dalai Lama,
beyond conquest, discovery, mere clout;
& discounting celebrity egos and icons.
In a species of all-sorted billions
is it one-off, freak-chance
a cosmic mis-match, mistake
for great souls to incarnate in 3D?
Not just holy, otherworldly misfits
impossible to emulate
but a beacon of what humanity
can become?