MONSTERS AND MAZES

Have you heard of that game “Dungeons and Dragons?” And in case you are assuming, no this is not a take on that game in terms of this posting.

This is another posting where I slip into my “closet of surety” in terms staying on familiar ground. While I love dispensing my Limburger practical and veracious sagacity with regards to my view of life and the world there are times when I must digress to my most favorite subject. That obvious being the lifeblood of my passion and soul (assuming I actually still have it and didn’t sell it without realizing), the territory and domain of electorate leadership or local Mayoral politics.

Did I get long-winded and wordy enough for you on that one? There are times when I’m called on to address some group who I can feed only baloney and keep their attention. And in this case I happen to have a meeting with several businessman coming up to discuss certain aspect of our city’s business realm and the way my city encourages such prosperity.

These are greedy, cut throat and take no prisoner types of fiscal tigers. So I can just toss them a bone without them taking off my arm in the process.

That means polishing up my verbiage to be sure I leave them with the impression I actually respect them. I do in terms of their predator nature, but I’m shrewd enough to appreciate they wouldn’t hesitate to cut my throat if they could.

So thus they are to me “monsters.” Only not the type I can kill off and never see again. If I manage to wipe these beasts out more will take their place and they might be even worse.

Basically my best defense is to lead them into a maze of my promises and feed them a few walls of regulations to keep them from escaping. If I do my job correctly then I end up keeping them trapped without realizing my deed was intentional.

And despite these individuals being very astute they do have one incredible weakness. That is their ego. I let them think they are in control.

Which really isn’t as hard as you might imagine. You take them into your confidence by sharing something you make them think is a secret only you will trust them to know. Plus the big part is also asking their opinion and then shifting through their self-absorbed diatribe for the one morsel of fact I can actually chew on without risking any damage to my plans or organization.

The best part is having them think they actually one. That becomes such an addiction to them. They normally lower their guard when they assume they can control them.

And that brings the joy of having them end up making some contribution to my personal cause. Which becomes their toll to escape the maze. But just like a good monster they never are able to think hard enough to appreciate the maze really is a trap that for them has no exit!