CELL 39
Victor Herman, in his Coming Out of the Ice, tells of a man who kept him from going insane during his first 24 hours in the Russian Gulag.
His cell (No. 39): five and a half feet wide, and ten feet long
with a boarded up window at the far end and the cell door at the other.
Two benches along the walls and sixteen men to the cell and closest to
the door, a parasha, a round vat that served as a latrine and was emptied every ten days.
The stench was choking, silence was required and so was movement. From
dawn to darkness they were forced to sit, silent and stare at a hole in
the cell door through which the guards were able to watch them.
At night they lay like eggs in a carton on the cold stone floor. Every
inch of space was taken and the slightest movement to ease a pain was
bought at the expense of a fellow-sufferer.
Herman confessed that after only 24 hours of it he was on the edge of
madness and was kept from it only by “the Elder.” The Elder—no
names—sat closest to the parasha and to the door and if a guard had it in him to vent his bad temper or rage or whatever the Elder was always the first to get the beating.
This leader earned the right to make two decisions each day. One of them
was to give the sign when everyone was to begin to eat. He would count
sixteen bowls of soup as they came through the feeding hole in the cell
door to ensure that nobody received less than his share. Twice in the
night he would signal for the men to change sleeping positions so as to
ease the awful agony of cramp and disability when the morning came.
I accept the fact that there are and should be people “over” us—we must
have leaders, it isn’t a question of will we or won’t we; we’ll have
them! We can juggle the language, change terms, substitute this word for
that but we will all be “under” someone in some area of life; there’ll
always be someone (or someones) who shows us the truth of things and
when he/she does, in that realm we submit ourselves to them.
At its best authority compels us by persuading us that the
leader has more in him/her than we have; more of the right spirit or
wisdom or devotion, or whatever. They don’t compel us in the sense of coercing or
making formal demands for recognition—they earn our respect and
submission to their lead simply by their skill their giftedness,
character and behavior. But at one point or another if we’re going to
live as a community there will be “leaders”.
Leadership can be looked at in terms of how many people we can get under
us but that’s the pagan kind that Jesus spoke about on the betrayal
night when He spoke of leadership in terms of service. He said,
“There’s either pagan authority or Mine.” So, maybe it’s not too sugary
to say leadership at its best is seeing how many we can get under so as
to lift them. Maybe it’s more about seeing how many we can get into to
transform.
There’s something sinister (I think) in attempts to get rid of
leadership (however that’s attempted) because we will always end up with
leaders (call them what we may or call them nothing). They may speak quietly and with a smile, there may be more than one and they may even ask for opinions now and then but we will have leaders.
The group may even “democratically vote” on occasions but there will be
those that (ugly phrase but still) “call the shots.” There will always
be those judged (not wickedly) not gifted to do this or that and they
will happily follow the leaders & happily submit to them. (Call them what you want but they will lead and there will be followers.)
I can’t help thinking “the Elder” at the door was regarded as “the
Elder” by common consent and not because he demanded recognition or
because he somehow rigged the vote. He manifestly served, but “the
elder” still called the shots twice a day and was obeyed without
quibbling or worry about questions of “equality” in all things. (There’s
something strange too in a person or a group that is preoccupied with
“I must be understood and treated as equal in all ways.”) We will “obey”
someone! Even if I’m given a turn at “calling the shots”—I’m given it by someone(s) with the authority to do it.
This entire area needs, and is worth, thinking about. I recognize that
the most compelling piece of this little thing is the telling of
Herman’s cell, so it can’t hurt us to reflect on that a while. I’m
tempted to say that those who are our best leaders are those who suffer
most for us. But, yes, it’s too simple; still it’s not too simple for us
to take that aspect of leadership seriously.
