Telling the Boss

I don't much enjoy going to Mass, but I go anyway. Partially, that's a result of growing up Catholic, but most its because I bring my daughter -- the classic Setting A Good Example. How much of a Good Example is, I suppose, problematical, as she knows perfectly well that I don't like going, but I could make the case that the example is, sometimes you do what you don't want to do because you know you should. At least, thats what I hope.

Every so often, when the pastor says the Mass, he tosses in irrelevant asides as he's talking. The assistant doesn't do it very much -- though one time he did let it slip that when the Red Sox won the Series, he wondered if this was a sign of the apocalypse -- but the pastor does, because he's a very down to earth person.

This morning, he mentioned that it had been a year since the former bishop had died. I was talking to a Jewish friend once and told him that I didn't know what the Jewish equivalent of a Catholic bishop would be, or cardinal, or even Pope, for that matter; he told me that there wasn't any equivalent, and that Jews tended to be pretty locally defined, without a hierarchical structure. I liked the sound of that.

When the pastor made that comment, he said that when the former bishop was told that he'd been selected, he asked if the Pope (who does the picking) knew of his ill-health. The messenger said yes, he did, and the bishop-designate demurred again, saying that he wasn't sure this was a good idea. The messenger said, with some exasperation, that 'The Holy Father Does Not Like Being Told No' -- whereupon he took the job.

Not liking being told No, or indeed getting bad news at all, is a trait of senior managers. I think that they shape a vision in their mind of what the world is like, and what they want it to be, and selectively accept the pieces that suggest that the changes they want really are happening, while ignoring or downplaying the ones that say otherwise. When Bush believed the word he got from the CIA, it was most likely because he wanted to believe it. I happen to think that he was overwhelmed by the concerted desires of those who were his titular deputies, but he was likely predisposed to do so, anyway. It takes an intellectually strong person to be able to doubt what he or she really wanted to hear.

Remember the story that Patton tells of the slave riding in the chariot, whispering that all glory is fleeting? P erhaps we need some more of them, these days.... and whispering " You really believe that?" every so often, too.