There is a Stevie Wonder song I love a lot.
I love it a lot and it’s on an album I love a lot as well. The song and the album came to mind while I was sitting and hearing a conversation taking place.
The content of the conversation was very sad. It was the story of a man who hadn’t learnt his lesson. He started an initiative and wanted people to join him to develop the initiative. At first people were eager to join in until it transpired that he was not happy when the others prospered in their task and the man got very insecure at the progress of others. The tension in relationships led to an acrimonious split and the man was left with the initiative incomplete and still needing help to develop it.
As it happened some more people came along to help the man. At first it looked like he had learnt his lesson, the newcomers were eager to help for the betterment of the project. After a while the same insecurities emerged, the same drive for control spoilt relations and led to some more acrimonious departures.
It was clear that the man had not learnt his lesson because this cycle repeated itself on two more occasions and with each split the integrity and nature of the initiative itself crumbled. As the once promising project lay in ruins, the man was still railing against the various forces he felt had worked against him.
He pointed to conspiracies and apparent plots against him and the initiative, all of which were more about imaginations in his head than reality. He suggested it was down to the jealousy of others about his prowess and what was after all his initiative. Various issues were used expertly to spin a web of collusion against him, which would be the reason for the failure.
Yet for all of that – this initiative that he started still lay there in ruins.
The song that it reminded me of is taken from the awesome album Talking Book by Stevie Wonder. This album contains some classic Stevie tunes such as Superstition and You Are The Sunshine Of My Life. The tune that I was reminded of, however, is called Blame It On The Sun. The person singling laments about a broken relationship and the height of his despair sees him list a number of reasons why the break happened. At the end of the song, however, in his heart of hearts the singer acknowledges that it’s really his fault.
Maybe so many people could not be wrong. Maybe he did contribute to the mess on this occasion. Maybe he would have to take responsibility for that. Maybe he would have to learn lessons from that to ensure that he would avoid something like that happening again. Maybe he had to stop making excuses and blaming others for what was essentially his issue.
There is hope for the man. Others before him have looked to their own thing and despite numerous warning saw their projects come to nothing. They came to their senses eventually and learnt the key lessons of character that were necessary. Lessons of humility, meekness, acknowledging insecurity and dealing with it especially by trusting others and not hindering their progress.
Others have learnt while there was still time and there’s hope for this man, if he can reach that place where he hears his heart finally blame it on himself.
(Photo by Rowan Heuvel on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 