Every now and then, I read a statement that money and finance workers are not at the front lines of production and only deal with paper. During financial downtimes, these kinds of statements are probably more common. When we are stressed or afraid, one of the normal cries is “Back to basics! Hard work! Effort! Virtue!” These good things are indeed fundamental but I am here to underline the importance of spirit. It is just as fundamental as calories. In fact, calories in the form of heated and cooled homes, good food and good fuel often come from, or are increased by, good spirit.
The military and schools of business realize this truth. Their calls for leadership and attempts to instill and nurture leadership traits are related to the realization that a mob becomes a team with a message or symbol that unites them. For humans and modern complex life, it has to be a message or a symbol. We need to rely on the individual intelligence and skills of each person in the operation and cannot spell out beforehand what each is to do. So, inspiration and emotion are key. Thus, poetry, photography, dance, music, song, graphic arts, speech, 20 second ads and sound bites are key to forming and spreading a message of what must be done and how.
A Hagar the Horrible cartoon once showed a priest/scholar walking up to the front of an army. The man mounted a little podium and began to whip up the crowd. In short order, the soldiers were cheered and enthused. As the man departed, Lucky Eddie said to Hagar,” He’s good, all right.” These functions of inspiring, soothing, reminding, stimulating matter very much, just as much as good plumbing and good cooking. How can song and dance and shapely girls matter in bloody warfare? How can jokes enable badly wounded men to have hope and cheer? Do the arts really matter? Absolutely! If you doubt it, take a look at this review of Bob Hope’s work with shows before American troops.
Sure, clean rifles, good boots and nourishing meals matter. They are basic. But so are smiles, songs and jokes in everything human, from family life to hospitals to church.
