Prologue: (Mother’s curiosity and exhilaration seems to always peek when she is about to face a ‘dressing down’. These assessments for the CEO of The ARC Incorporated were her brainchild. “Mother, she would often say to herself, you could be accused of distorted reasoning because this testing of yours can be seen as causing undue pain upon you psyche”.
I decide what is beneficial to my stated goals in life. It is not whether others understand the reasons I systematically fortify my embankments. The ‘senses’ receive the first notification of trouble or pleasure. ‘Prosperity and Adversity’ are flip sides of the same coin. Preparation for both must be done simultaneously and seamlessly. From the neck up is where I must place 90% of my energies toward combating the many issues I will face, have faced, and have solved in my business. Fittingly this philosophy has afforded me a wonderful life.)
Sarah W. Certainty (1st of 3): (It is 1400 on a Wednesday afternoon and she knows what is next on Mother’s calendar. She has her session with ‘The Arc Council’ or as the associates like to call it ‘The Council’.)
Mother Sayer: I have read that look on your face for the last 5 years Sarah. Is it that time again?
Sarah W. Certainty: Yes Mother. ‘The Council’ awaits your arrival on the first floor.
Mother Sayer: Thank you Sarah. Prepare the office for my return.
Sarah W. Certainty: It will be ready for you as always. (Sarah has seen in her 5 years at the ARC the aftermath of Mother’s sessions with ‘The Council’ 32 times not counting today. She has provided Mother with refreshments ranging from stiff drinks to R & B music played on her Bose SoundTouch 30. Cold water. Hugs and kisses on both cheeks to just being there to listen as she sorted through the session to what she could use to enhance and strengthen her psyche. Sarah speaks softly to herself what she has spoken the last 5 years. “I will never fail this woman, ever!”
Council Session 43: (Mother rides the elevator to the bottom floor and exits to the right and enters an office through a single heavy door designed to be sound proof. The assistants to the 3 counselors secure the door behind Mother and draw the blinds on the inner windows.
The members of the Council are present for session 43. ‘D. D. O.’ the one who doesn’t speak. ‘The Arc Angel’ the duality representing both right and wrong. ‘Frank Inquisitor’ the one where aggression is foreplay, but no one gets off.
Frank Inquisitor: (Starts off as he usually does if the Arc Angel doesn’t speak first.) Would you like a chair Mother Sayer?
Mother Sayer: No Inquisitor, I will stand for this session, as I’m sure the floor will not shake or rattle in here.
Frank Inquisitor: Oh, you think we don’t have any good material to challenge that formidable mind of yours today?
Arc Angel: (Cuts in before Mother could answer.) We rarely hit our mark with this woman as she prepares a countermeasure to every thrust we make. Mother Sayer, I would like to start today by asking about this new product you’ve been developing. What’s it called, the ‘Playboy’ I presume?
Mother Sayer: Yes, that’s correct. (Mother cuts her answer short.)
Arc Angel: What’s it do? Don’t give me a short answer again or I will come over there and get in your grill.
Mother Sayer: (Good, I need this to be an offensive exercise because I’ve been getting mentally soft lately.) It is designed to be part of an airplane. It will take the place of the black box that is the industry standard now. Deploying in the event of a catastrophic incident to notify search and rescue teams of the exact location of a downed aircraft by GPS.
Arc Angel: I know you didn’t think of this idea did you?
Mother Sayer: (Ah, belittling and goading simultaneously. Good.) Yes I did.
Frank Inquisitor: The team led by; let’s see here, Nicole was on point right?
Mother Sayer: (Typical omission of the engineer who thought of the idea.) Nicole and her team handled the marketing strategy for the ‘Playboy’.
Frank Inquisitor: What about this product makes you believe it will be beneficial to the airline industry?
Mother Sayer: Before this allotted time, couldn’t you have read the reports submitted to you for study before this council session, or do you fashion yourself some Spanish Monarch with a trembling subject before you cowering for mercy?
Frank Inquisitor: (Sharply turns toward Mother as if to acknowledge the validity of her words, but also to signal a turn to a more aggressive line of questioning.) I will ask you again. How is it beneficial to the airline industry?
Mother Sayer: (An inner smile covers her face as she has taken command of this session by evening the odds.) The time to locate airline crashes or aviation mishaps will be virtually instantaneous. The ‘Playboy’ will deploy and activate a GPS marker at the precise location it went down. Second. In the event of a water crash, it will activate a buoy that will float on the surface and record continuously everything that has happened and still is occurring. Third. It will also activate a sonar feature that ships nearby can hone to help notify rescue teams. Fourth. In the event of a land crash. A solar powered marker will deploy from the tail section equipped with solar panels that will power all recording devices as long as is necessary for rescue to find the aircraft.
Mother Sayer: How’s that for value Mr. Columbus?
Arc Angel: No need for insults. Inquisitor was just asking a question that’s all.
Mother Sayer: It’s wasn’t lost on me that you remained silent as I popped off the details of the ‘Playboy’. Could it be you didn’t prepare for this session as well?
Arc Angel: Cute, Mother. I am always prepared. Wasn’t a member of Nicole’s team, Terence Dohey, lax in his fiduciary obligation to keep this matter a secret?
Mother Sayer: (This information was not put out to protect my associate’s mistake in judgment. How did she find out about it? This council is certainly becoming independent of even my oversight? Good.) My associate was reprimanded and ordered to report for retraining in company policies. I will not speak of another associate on the record again.
Frank Inquisitor: You will tell us whatever we wish to know.
Mother Sayer: (Excellent! Now I get to put it on the record again.) Listen to me carefully all three of you. If you have a matter to bring before this company, you bring it to me and me alone. My children are my concern, not yours. Now, if I have to tell you again you’re not gonna like it. Yes, I call them my children and as such I will decide if any punishment is necessary.
Perhaps I should explain myself more on this point.
May I explain my philosophy of ‘allegiance’? It is another example of the use of a powerful word which those who use it thinks that upon hearing it, people automatically understand it.
This is not so. First, let me cover the wrong way it has be used in society or even in a family. Allegiance in a family is understood to be that you hold fidelity to the family even if a family member is wrong. Thus the underlying problem, the offense is allowed to fester, growing with a fowl stench until it is so unbearable that it forces the family to address it.
Alliances are fickle. Then why do countries have allies if they are finicky you ask? Because at the first sign of danger an alliance can be broken if there is no underlying belief in the other’s moral authority to deal with a matter by what’s right or wrong about it.
That’s the problem when you decide who is an ally by taking ‘sides’!
I know it is frequently expected with family against non-family. Which is why many families aren’t morally strong. ‘They’re misguided by a false meaning of allegiance.’ Allegiance is cultivated with benevolence. Only what will help the one’s I love (human power) is what I desire for them.
Allegiance then becomes meaningful because regardless of who occupies my family or who is trusted I pledge loyalty (human power) because we live by what’s right and what’s wrong. Whether it is a ‘pact’ involving two or multiples of two, allegiance must have a foundation that isn’t subject to cracks.
Honor, fairness, benevolence are hallmarks that should naturally broadcast to anyone that happens upon your allegiance. That’s why I understood the meaning of pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America long ago in my childhood.
I understood that allegiance embodies those traits that are crucial to coalescing an impenetrable force of citizens. Women and men, girls and boys that know that an alliance is only as good as the people who keep it strong. Alliances can only be kept strong if wrongs are called out and corrected no matter the person who committed them, and what is right must be championed at all times.
- D. O.: (She is not allowed to talk. Observation is her calling in these sessions. Her restriction doesn’t include writing as she writes up her analysis with vigor as she takes in the back and forth between the others on the council and Mother Sayer.)
Arc Angel: (She silently looks at Mother Sayer and wonders how high this woman can go. Amazing. We have circled around her in sessions. We have ridiculed her. We have intentionally tried to make her buckle in her authority running the Arc Incorporated. She prepares well and not only that she thinks nimbly on her feet. Impressive!) I only have one last thing Mother. Are you the matriarch of this company or are you simply the CEO?
Mother Sayer: (Oh brother.) I am the Matriarch of ‘The ARC Incorporated’. The title if you are to understand the development of this word. Matriarch or Patriarch was meant to bestow power on the female or the male along the timelines of human history. The meaning simply states that someone has to be in charge.
Let me go a little further because I get the feeling that this word creates unease among women.
Somebody has to be in charge. Whether that is a man or a woman there are certain expectations that go with being in charge or being the leader. Being susceptible to every whim is not practical. A certain detachment will appear in your personality whether you want it or not.
Judgment will push its’ way to the front and the ability to discern good and evil will ask (demand) you put in the time learning and familiarizing yourself to know the difference.
Suddenly being the leader will require you act in the best interest of the family or the organization regardless of what you would like to do.
Then, if you have truly embraced your role; your thoughts will become elevated beyond flesh and blood impulses to matters involving greater importance. Like the lives of others and directing them appropriately to achieve their potential.
If you embrace this responsibility, then you will start to see your success is not dependent on having the ‘favor of the king’. It is dependent on doing the things that you know will create dividends in meaningful human lives.
So yes, I am the Matriarch.
Arc Angel: My session is complete. How about you Inquisitor?
Frank Inquisitor? I am satisfied.
- D. O.: (She gestures with a thumbs up it’s done.)
Mother Sayer: Good. I look forward to our next encounter. Good day.
Mother Sayer: (Mother leaves the room and the assistants to the council escorts her to the exit and she is free once again to review what just happened and enjoy the rest of her day. Funny. Why is Tina Turner’s ‘Steel Claw’ starting to play in my head?
Oh well, in any case, it is appropriate.).