Conversations in Management
There’s
magic in the air and surprising as it may seem, the Earl of
Beaconsfield evidently knew quite a lot about it. Benjamin
Disraeli is best known as a two-time Prime Minister during the
reign of Queen Victoria. Then, as now, politics was essentially
a bare knuckle business in which both skill and cunning were
prerequisites for success. Disraeli played the game well and
effectively advanced a legislative agenda when his party was
both in and out of power. And he wasn’t naïve about it either.
When first elected as Prime Minister he declared, “I have
climbed to the top of the greasy pole.”
But there
was a softer side of Disraeli as well. He was a prolific writer
not only, as one might expect, of satire and political works,
but of romantic fiction as well. Something of a ladies man, he
had a taste for amorous intrigue and notorious conduct. Yet the
true measure of his heart can be found in his marriage to Mary
Anne Wyndham Lewis in 1839. He was thirty-five and she was 12
years his senior. Cynics claimed he married her for her money
(she was a widow with a substantial estate) but time proved them
wrong. As the years passed, it was clear to all that they shared
a deep and abiding love for one another. It was also a
relationship that easily accommodated humor. When Disraeli would
tease her by claiming he’d only married her for her money, she’d
reply, “but if you had to do it again, you’d do it for love.”
Despite the age difference, they’d enjoy thirty-three years of
married life together.
Spring is
the season of first love. The natural order leaves no
doubt that something wonderful is afoot. The trees rapidly
green, long dormant bulbs come to life and a profusion of blooms
start the industrious bumble bee on his lazy course through the
garden. There’s another sign of magic in the air as well. It’s
the early evening siting of high school students
self-consciously decked out in formal attire making their way to
the prom. (Fortunately the apricot Tuxes of the 70’s have
reached extinction!) It’s one of those rites of passage filled
with excitement, dread, despair and jubilation. Most of all,
there’s a hopefulness to it all. It’s a clear demarcation
between “kiddom” and adulthood. And at this point,
adulthood still seems alluring. With the fulfillment of
graduation just around the corner, life itself seems like a
first love. Whether prom turns out to be bonanza or bust,
the magic of the day, the night and the season hangs in the air!
Experience
teaches us that the magic does end. Routine sets in. Endless
possibilities turn out to be finite after all. A few moments of
quiet repose at the end of the day seems the best future we can
hope for. Yet the palpable excitement of the young folks heading
off to the prom brings it all home again. There’s magic in
the air for these kids and it’s contagious. In truth, the
satisfying blend of awkwardness and sophistication displayed by
these teenage couples can bring an amused smile to lips of even
the most world-weary among us. If the kids remain ignorant of
the hard rows ahead, so be it. It’s the kind of ignorance
from which we can all benefit. So, in the spirit of proms
everywhere, let’s take the ignorance pledge. Let’s share
the kid’s enthusiasm. Let’s savor the season of first love and
remain deliberately ignorant of the fact that it might ever end.
And why not? There’s magic in the air!
—Ebert
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