Tell me about Power
I've listened to NPR for many years. Likewise I watch the good news shows. I read the newspapers and the websites and generally keep "current." And so, for a long time, I've felt I had a pretty good handle on "how the real world works" as it were. Back in July I began reading The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro. Nothing I've seen or heard or read before has ever made me feel so naive and silly, so inexperienced, innocent, and young.
It's a wonderful book, really. It's about the rise and fall of a great power: Robert Moses. It's difficult to say little of this book, and the story it tells, and I haven't even finished yet. It's a long book too: 1162 pages, not counting notes, photos and maps. I have to say, it was only during the first 177 pages that I my own youth and ignorance, as above, dawned to awareness.
I definitely want to write something of what I've learned, but that time is not yet. I'm sure it has already been an important influence on me. But, in the meantime, I want to know what you, my friends and readers, have experienced with power?
"Power" is a big word with a long shadow of meanings, connotations, and experiences with it but I don't want to limit this. It can be a story about having power, or being in the hands of power. It can be a power you experienced directly, or observed in action upon others.
Some examples of stories I've recently heard: I've heard what is was like to have the family farm threatened by an impending noxious (and I do mean noxious) development. I've heard what it was like to evict someone. I've heard what it was like to have different doctors give conflicting advice. I've heard what it's like to be suddenly laid off.
This post is public, so reply at your own discretion. Make a "friends only" post or send me an email if it's too juicy for even that. I promise to keep it confidential, I promise not to be judgmental or hold anything against you. I promise not to give advice. But I don't promise not to adapt it for use in fiction.
(Considering my writing output, present and past, it seems a safe bet that I won't write anything about it at all. It's my great shame but its a fact I continue to wrestle with.)
Thank you.